#they were trapped in the tower together and had to stay sane for each other. making up games together. trying not to crack. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

0risha · 3 years

Text

“BONES.”

✰ PAIRING ⤷ dabi x fem!reader

SUMMARY ⤷ It took him over a decade to muddle his brain with different memories to overshadow his past ones, not wanting for the abstained shadows of remembrance to embrace him.

It’s not that he doesn’t trust you.

Dabi doesn’t trust himself.

He doesn’t trust the color of his mind to stay in the now state it’s in. If Touya Todoroki were to unwrap the gauze that clung to his very being, he’d fall apart. And he couldn’t have that. This unforgiving life of his had finally unfolded its palms and given him a gift and he’d stay sane for as long as he could to enjoy it.

✰ WC ⤷ 6.6k?

✰ TAGS ⤷ major angst, there is fluff though pinky promise, there’s a suggestive line, please don’t cancel me, it was detrimental to the story manga spoilers, a few curse words, character death, very, very soft dabi, shigaraki is an ass

NOTES ⤷ this is, indeed, the longest thing I've written that wasn't for school. and the summary is just a blurb because i had no idea what to write there. lol, I'm sitting at my laptop while crying my eyes out...... but uh.... I hope you like it ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ

You smoke, Dabi takes that into account on the first day he sees you. Dabi hates cigarettes, despises them. He hates that itchy feeling his lungs get whenever he takes a drag, hates the way it makes him feel abyssal, co-dependent. And if there's one thing that Dabi hates, it's relying on something else that wasn't him self.

With that into consideration, he’s not entirely sure why you catch his eye, you’re not typically the type he goes for. He usually chose the dainty ones, the ones that were so eager to experience a jive of thrill, they don’t realize that they’ve encountered a person who played an important role in one of the most powerful villain organizations.

You're in the corner of a dingy bar, the dim lights somehow doing your angelic features justice. The light catches the glint of your name tag and the pastel blue of your scrubs. You look tired. Even from a far distance, he can see the sunken tent of your cheeks. The cigarette stick which hangs from in between your index finger and middle is halfway from becoming a stub. The plastic platter of pretzels that sit across from your chest is untouched as you grumble out replies to the bartender who's trying to make conversation with —a very uninterested— you.

When the clock hits eleven, your bar stool is scraping the ground as you attempt to leave. The relentless bartender grabs your arm with one last plea. His voice raising when you deny the idea that you should give him your number because you're too pretty to be by yourself. With one last pull, you stomp away towards the exit. Dabi doesn't know if it's because he's a villain too, but he follows after you. His senses telling him that there’s no way the bartender who you’d just rejected would let his wounded pride stay unbandaged.

He’s careful not to make any noises with the soles of his boots. The absence of street lights concealing his figure. Unbeknownst to him, his body enforces the skills he uses while stalking his next prey. His languid motions flowing with the same transverse as the cold, biting wind.

And you don’t notice a thing, your hands stuffed into the pockets of your thick silver jacket. But when your walking comes to a stop, Dabi’s heart nearly tumbles out from his chest. Not a second later, you pull out a pack of cigarettes and place one to your lips, lighting it in one go. When you resume walking, Dabi’s body internally holds a jubilee with jeers of relief. He’s not exactly sure why he’s helping you but what type of person would he be if he let a pretty lady like you get hurt?

At the thought, his throat tickles with the hope to let out a laugh.

When Dabi hears the crunch of leaves that bounce off the cracked concrete, for the second time that night he nearly breaks into a fit of laughter. The culprit’s first step is to trap you behind the fenced wall and his burly figure. What an amateur.

A part of Dabi wants to wait and see what you do. Are you a regular civilian? Do you have a strong quirk that would fight him off? His trail of thought evaporates when you hiccup out a laugh, smoke from the corner of your lips flowing into the man’s face. Dabi’s eyebrows quirking up with interest. What’s your next act?

After several hitches of breath, nothing comes and Dabi finally decides to step in as he feels the waves of anger emitting from the balding, middle-aged man who has you cornered.

The confrontation is brief —when the bartender turns to glance at an approaching lean, scarred figure, he scurries off without a word.

“Didn’t have to help me, I had it in the bag.” You squint at your savior as your cigarette bobs with the movement of your full lips. His stature towers over yours but you don’t seem the little bit phased.

“You weren’t scared,” he says and it’s more of a question than a statement. His cool voice sends a frosty layer through each stack of your vertebrae. Though, it slowly ebbs away as you study his features and realize how pretty he is —his eyes a pool of melted lapis. Sharp cheekbones molded to accustom to scars and silver staples that do nothing but add to your thinking connotation of him being ambiguity personified.

“Yeah, even if he did... you know.” You wave your hand. “He would’ve died sooner or later.” Dabi’s eyes narrow in confusion as he catches the way your eyelashes flutter prettily against your skin.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh.. uh- he had heart issues, the kind you can’t recover from.” You remove the lit stick from your lips and give him a full-toothed smile. “Thank you, Mr. Stranger.” And with that, you turn away and resume your lethargic walk down an empty alleyway.

Must be your quirk. Dabi thinks as he watches your figure disappear into the grasping shadows of the night. When he returns to the battered LOV hideout, he goes out of his way to avoid any interaction with the League. Refusing to taint his memory of your pretty smile and pretty face.

The next time Dabi sees you, you’re in the same place. This time you’re not wearing scrubs, opting for a more casual look with a baby blue top that contrasts nicely with your skin and jeans that accentuate your figure. You don't have a pack of cigarettes either.

Unlike before, you notice his stare and you bathe in it. The bartender from the other day all but glances at you. Amusingly, you turn to glance at the brooding figure in the corner of the bar with a knowing look.

After two beers and spinning courage, you walk towards Dabi with sway in your step. His eyes follow your movement until you decide to situate yourself next to him in the booth. His low lids focus on you as you fidget with your manicured fingers. Cute. He thinks. You’re too cute for your own good.

“What’s your name?” You break the silence. Teeth gnawing into the plush dent of your bottom lip.

Dabi takes his time to mull over his answer, he doesn’t notice the way his body temperature flares nor the tiny blue flames that threaten to dance on his scabbed knuckles. A grasp —an unfamiliar cloak, wraps its fabric around his shoulders. Prickles of his being push with urgency to ease it away but it’s all in vain.

“Touya.”

Touya, from the corner of his eye, watches your eyes light up with interest. Bright and wide with swirling specks of gaiety— joy. Which Dabi guesses are because of him. He turns his attention away from you, not wanting to get warped into your pretty eyes that sparkle just from hearing his name.

“S’ a pretty name,” you whisper. Sporting a subtle grin, one that blows wide when you see all four chambers of his heart pumping wildly with blood.

“Can you walk me home, Touya?”

It goes on like this, again and again —conversations with Touya at the back of the bar, sitting next to him in the grimy booth. His replies are quip ones but you know he’s listening to your idle chatter because you feel the way his eyes bore into your skull.

The night always comes to a close with both of you walking shoulder to shoulder, the plans of your upcoming day echoing off the bounds of the night sky. You live in an apartment building, a shitty one. He remembers you complaining about the squeaky floorboards, your loud neighbors, and the pervy, greasy-haired landlord that barges through your door at the most unreasonable times of the day. Touya raises his eyebrow at that.

“I’ll take care of him for you.” The words fly past his lips before he can stop them.

Your response is a peal of robust laughter that comes to a halt when you pull out a cigarette. “I’ll be sure to come to you,” you say. Today marked the thirtieth time you both engaged in subtle conversation. He takes note in the fact that you only smoke when you wear scrubs —the rope of curiosity gets the best of him.

“I have to keep up with the appearance of my two personalities, duh.” Touya has no clue what you mean but your clipped tone tells him that he shouldn't pry.

Meanwhile, your eyes flit to his sapphire ones than to his lips.

“Touya?”

“Mhm?”

“Can I kiss you?” You watch the way his eyes widen with a low giggle.

But before he can answer, your lips are already on his. He’s quick to take action as he cups the underside of your jaw, your breath minty even though you just had a smoke. His head’s a mess, there’s a jumble of terms that fail to come together and form coherent ones. The only thing his brain can commit is the pillowy softness of your lips. Sadly, he can’t enjoy the whole experience. His bottom lip erased with the tissue needed to feel, only leaving a purpled patch in its wake.

For a second, his chest tides over with a tinge of shame but it’s quickly washed away as you pull him even closer. Your small, gentle fingers carding through his soft, inky tresses.

The kiss ends when you pull away with a breathless sigh. You stay close to him, noses nearly touching as once shared breaths mingle. His hands are on your hips now, slowly kneading the soft flesh. A couple of seconds dart by as your dark eyes stare into his bright ones. The low-lighted area giving them a fascinating glow.

You want to tell him how pretty he looks at this moment. His flustered expression causing your gut to simmer with heat.

You need to tell him how nicely entrapped his presence always makes you feel but something in you decides against it, choosing to save it for another time. So you search for an alternative, breath growing unsteady as you stumble across one.

“Can you....walk me home, Touya?” This time it's different from the first night you asked him.

This time your voice trails off with a much different undertone.

››››››››››››››››››››› ~★~ ›››››››››››››››››››››

Touya wakes up before you do. Peeks of the sun squeeze through your bedroom blinds, casting a shining glow on your skin. As he studies your peaceful features, he encounters a divulgence. One that causes his skin to crawl with parasites that immediately beg him to keep up with this facade. To derive a little longer and enjoy this bliss at his own expense. However, Touya decides against it. It’s quite obvious that he’s not the safest person to be around, his appearance giving that thought away.

It might be better if he tells you first, he thinks.

It might be better if he lets a precious thing like you go before he builds a stockpile of lies that’ll eventually come crashing down when the realization finally hits.

“I’m a villain, you know,” he murmurs as he watches your eyelids flutter open. He grimaces as he tries to think of what your reaction may be. The first words you woke up to would have to be that you’d let a criminal into your home —into your bed.

He sits up to place his back on your cool headboard. The bell of anxiousness that sits at the pit of his stomach rings after a few beats of silence. You turn to stare at his upright figure with two arms tucked underneath your satin pillow. “I know, m’ not stupid, Touya.” You grumble, turning your head to return to sleep.

“What?” His eyebrows knit has his chest shutters with disbelief.

You ignore his bewilderment. “Since we’re confessing our deepest, darkest secrets can I tell you what could’ve been my villain origin story?” Touya stares at your face before bursting into laughter, one that nearly causes the staples around his jaw to unhinge. Though, this laughter is one of relief.

A part of him doesn’t believe it.

He doesn’t think he’s ever done a deed so right, so pure, that had earned him someone like you. The only thing his reeling mind can suffice is that he had killed a scum in some random, dirty alley that ended up being the lowest of the low. At the random thought, he laughs some more.

“What?” You can’t help but giggle, his laughter —which was a rare entity— made you giddy with joy. “I’m serious!” You pout, turning away from him to feign anger, your ears stay perked up as his smooth, rich laughter fills your bedroom with warmth.

“Okay, fine I won’t tell you.” His laughter trails off as he moves from the headboard to lie directly across from you.

“Alright, tell me.” His abnormal body heat causes you to shuffle closer until you rest your head on his chest.

When your story is done, he can’t help but stare at the ceiling in cerebrate silence.

At the age of fifteen, a program introduced by the hero association had recruited kids with abilities related to the medical field. Yours being an x-ray like quirk that allowed you to detect diseases, broken bones, and infections. Ones even normal x-ray’s couldn’t see. Forced to drop out of high school to take nursing classes and discard your latest stage of childhood life, you’d already become a registered nurse before the ripe age of nineteen. You worked in a special division, one where you only dealt with pro-heroes. You tell Touya about your worst encounter, one where you diagnosed a collection of broken ribs and the incapability to do hero work for several weeks and got shoved so hard that your ankle had twisted. Fortunately, the program had been discarded when you were twenty. With your inability to do other things that weren’t related to nursing you decided to stay one.

“Where were your parents?” It takes you a second to answer, chest deflating in the worst kind of way as you remember your father and mother’s shame-ridden faces staring back at your own —your's ridden with disbelief.

“They got money, so it didn’t really matter what happened to me.” You whisper, using the soft pad of your index finger to trace his scarred skin.

“Wanted to be a writer, Touya.” You try your best to hold in your cries but to no avail. “Wanted to write a best-seller,” You laugh, but it’s overshadowed by the watery sob that follows.

And with that, he finally understands. You’re two personas, a writer and a nurse. His chest tides up with pride once he realizes that he’s probably the first person to see and understand what they both mean to you.

“You can still be one,” he says. But it’s a promise of his own in disguise. I’ll change the world for you, make it so you can do anything you want to. It echoes from his every syllable and trails off with a familiar lilt.

And you see it too —hope-filled eyes flit to glittering ones. His, a bright pair of blue gems that shine with raw, unfiltered passion- yet to be completely polished. Against your will, every tendril of your being untwines and wraps itself around his words- you believe him. Unconsciously, your lips blow into a wide smile. “I’ll hold you to it, Touya.”

The stagnant air diffuses once you ask him a question, “when’s your birthday?”

Internally, you kick yourself in the shin as Touya shoots you a whimsical look. You’re not sure why this is the first personal question you decide to ask him.

But to you, Touya’s painted in grey, moral wise. You’ve only known him for less than a month, his background revealed the same night you met him. When you were with Touya, he didn’t seem like a villain. Villains were supposed to be vile, viscous people that didn’t dissolve properly into the troughs of today’s society.

His touch was gentle, handling you with nothing other than care. But you’re sure he’s used those same nimble fingers to inflict pain on whomsoever he chose. To you, Touya’s a jigsaw. You’re prepared —at least you think you are— to solve it. Prepared to start with the small pieces. And when those gradually come together, you’d use them as a guide. Treading carefully to work from known to unknown.

However, Touya prays to the gods that you don’t use your quirk to see the way his heart pumps wildly and the way his breath hitches. It took him over a decade to muddle his brain with different memories to overshadow his past ones not wanting for the abstained shadows of remembrance to embrace him. It’s not that he doesn’t trust you.

Dabi doesn’t trust himself.

“December 15th.” Your eyes widen when you realize the day was when you both had met. “I was your birthday gift then, huh.” You giggle, pressing closer to his body to feel the erratic thump of his heart.

“Guess so.” A good lie is always better than the truth.

That’s what he tells himself when Tomura asks where he’s been for the past couple of months. Vehement, crimson eyes digging into Dabi’s skull. He scoffs in annoyance, opting to tell the blue-haired man that he’d been out of town to scout for new members. Rummaging through underground areas where the average of villains was the thickest.

And yes, they’re all lies. He’s happy that Tomura is as dumb as he looks. Though it may be because Dabi has mastered the art of weaving intricate webs of lies- he’s grateful, nonetheless.

When Dabi turns away from him, Tomura’s eyes narrow.

Shigaraki Tomura isn’t as dumb as he looks. But Dabi didn’t know that -at least, not yet.

Here in the LOV hideout, where Dabi’s just a ruthless flame kindler, he finds no self-content, only impatience. Sometimes, taking part in Toga’s antics as a source of entertainment, her bloodlust too damn thick to ignore.

Impatience, a contagious drug that filters through Dabi’s veins and causes his blood to sear whenever he thinks about the overturn he wants hero society to so badly face. It’s the only way this ache of his can be soothed.

At first, it was just for him to bask in -for him to enjoy. For him to see a part of his past, burn. To see a rage of flames that -in time, turned to a cinder, his memories with it.

But now, he wants you to see it too. He wants to keep you tucked by his side as everything unfolds. Knowing this, he waits. Dabi’s not naive, this dream of his isn’t a one-man act.

Though, the biggest step closer to glory comes earlier than expected…

He’s a hero, the number two pro hero in all of Japan. His speed and the aid of his wings being his strongest suit. The information he provides is what still causes the Leauge to thrive. And the reason that Shigaraki now knows of the Meta Liberation Army. A powerful villain organization that rivaled Tomura’s very own. Led by a man named Destro, a name that every villain’s supposed to know. Kuriogi tells him this in his usual monotone voice, he’s the founder and now his son currently leads the army. The thing is, Dabi does know but for other reasons. His father was a hero after all.

Shigaraki orders Dabi to keep watch over Hawks. Sure, Dabi has his suspicions too, but he couldn’t differentiate if it’s the hostility he feels after he learns Hawks’ friendly relationship with Endeavor or for the fact that several missions had been deemed as errors because of the red-winged man’s mistakes.

Though, his stress dissipates when he comes home to you. It didn’t take a lot of time for Touya to get accustomed to your apartment. He’s used to living in shitty places, the League had been -and still is- living in one for months.

Fortunately, your landlord never comes around. You think it’s because of Touya’s intimidating presence but it stretches farther than that. Farther into the territory of what makes Touya into the fearful villain he is. But, you didn’t have to know that. Touya deliberates. You were stressed enough as it is.

Sometimes you’re not even home, late shift reminders overtaking your flimsy calendar. On those days, when you return, you’re so tired that Touya has to undress and bathe you himself. It’s never a toll, he enjoys listening to your barely decipherable recaps of your day, ones that sometimes turn into angry speeches of frustration that he’s sure to soothe with soft kisses to your pursed lips.

“Touya,” you whisper. Head in the crook of his neck while he lathers your body with body wash. Your head’s cloudy, exhaustion taking its home in your body.

“Mhmm.”

“Love you, like.. a lot.” The words bleed together with little to no pauses. It’s so slurred that Touya has to mull over it.

When he finally separates them in his head, he pauses. Eyes going wide as the grip on the pink loofah loosens.

Those words had never been emitted between you two. They were the three forbidden syllables that hung still, frozen in mid-air. It should’ve been easy to say. So easy to confess if push ever came to shove and the tides of adoration ever became too much to bear.

Despite that - in Touya’s head, his sole belief was that he was a package of damaged goods. What solace could you find if he ever told you that he loved you? Would it bring you happiness- fear?

Months had passed between the two of you, the light of winter and spring passing with intertwined hands. But what if- what if- you didn’t love Touya as much as he thought? What if you stayed by his side because you took pity on him? Took pity on a man who had no efficiency, no worth, no value, and used it to your heart’s content to mend yourself together.

Unbeknownst to him, those thoughts had run aimlessly across your mind as well. Both of you were damaged goods. Both of you unfamiliar with the thrum of the common melody.

When you feel his movements halt, a part of you feels victorious.

Oh, how lucky you were for being high on delirium. This was a chance pulled out of luck’s pocket.

“Don’t gotta say it, I see it.” He lowers his gaze to see you staring intensely at his chest. Which no doubt encases an organ that beats wildly because of your words. For the first time in a long time, he grows embarrassed. A streak of red blossoms from under his scarred cheeks as he chooses to hide his head in your neck, inhaling the strong citrusy scent of your body wash.

Hesitantly, you brush your fingers across the expanse of his back. Careful to avoid rough skin. Hoping that with your touch, you can convey a message of understanding.

I love you Touya and I know you love me.

››››››››››››››››››››› ~★~ ›››››››››››››››››››››

On a week that you’re finally off from work, you choose to spend it with Touya. He‘s barely out anyways. When you ask him why he’s never out doing villainy things. He answers with, “to spend time with you, princess.” A chortle at the end of his sentence when he sees you duck your head in embarrassment.

“Wanna go dress shopping with me tomorrow?” You ask, taking a handful of potato chips in your palm, focus still on your tv show -which Touya believes is the most boring thing he’s ever come across.

He turns to glance at you, eyebrows knitted as he contemplates.

He knows he shouldn’t, situations where his identity might be discovered, wouldn’t be good for the both of you.

And if Tomura were to find out…. the possibilities were too endless and Touya would keel over before he put your life in jeopardy.

But he still says yes- he’s never actually seen you wear a dress, he tells you. A subtle smile adorning his lips when he sees yours. He doesn’t ask why you want to buy a dress all of a sudden but he doesn’t mind.

The next day, you dress him up in a big burly coat that you had found at a thrift store years ago. Touya scrunches up his nose in disdain as you pull it up to cover his purple-hued scars, the fabric smelling oddly like sulfur. If it weren’t for the way you seemed so focused on hiding his identity he would’ve discarded the clothing a long time ago. He thinks the last straw is when you plop a pair of dark sunglasses on his nose.

“Don’t look at me like that!” you fuss. “I tried my best.”

“Was your best option really a combination of coat and sunglasses?” He exasperates, voice coming out muffled.

“What... I can’t hear you?” You cup the back of your ear, feigning curiosity.

He rolls his eyes at your comment. “Whatever, let’s go.”

You grab your silver coat from your rack and walk outside, both of you making it to your beat-down Honda. As Touya shuffles in the passenger seat you can’t help but giggle at his uncomfortable posture, they turn louder when he turns to glare at you but fails miserably, his intimidating face shrouded by the coat and glasses.

When you enter the boutique a small ding of a bell hits your ear. You smile in victory once you realize the vacancy. A short lady with gray hair waddles towards you and Touya. “Well, hello there!” She exclaims her soft voice matching with the appearance of her shop. Sweet and adorable. “What are you two looking for today.” She walks closer to you two, her motherly aura shrouding you in contentment.

“Well… I’m not entirely too sure,” you say, clasping your hands behind your back. “But something blue and flowy.” You hum.

“Blue and flowy, you say?” She turns. “Follow me.”

You turn to glance at Touya, whose attention is already on you. You grab his hand and follow behind. She leads you to a wide room, the smell of laundry detergent filtering through the air. Your eyes widen once you see the rows of dresses adorned in plastic.

“These are all my babies.” She waves and turns to you with an expectant look, eyes crinkling as she gives you a warm smile.

“They’re real pretty, aren't they?” You nod. “Well, the dressing rooms are back there.” She points to the far right. “If you need anything just come to me, I’ll be at the front desk.”

You walk towards the small corridor of dressing rooms and pick the first one you see. Pushing Touya into the stall, you place your hands on your hip after clicking the door shut. He takes his sunglasses off and shoots you a quizzical look.

“Show me your flames,” you breathe out, palms growing clammy as nervousness starts to set in.

You wring your hands as you watch his adam's apple bob, his stare turning hard. “No.”

You cross your arms and plead. “Please Touya, I wanna find a dress that matches your flames. They’re probably really pretty… don’t know why you won’t show me.” Your voice trails off.

He had an idea that this would happen sooner or later. There were times where you did see his flames but those were accidents. He always made sure to quickly extinguish them when he caught your peering eyes.

His chest floods with guilt once he sees your disappointed expression. He didn’t think his flames were pretty. He’d melted too many flays of flesh to count. The last thing he wanted to do was show you the bright-tinged spirit responsible for his grave sins.

But one dilemma Touya has is that he can’t ever seem to jump over the weak spot he has for you. So, he gives a meek - fine.

He watches your features light up with glee, only hoping that you wouldn’t regret asking him for this. “Can I take the coat off, first?” You hum, scrambling to do it for him. Revealing his plain white tee and his dark black jeans.

“Step back for me,” he whispers, gnawing at the bottom of his scarred lip. He opens the palm of his hand- to first, show a tiny blue flame that sways languidly. Progressively, he increases the flame until it engulfs his hand and upper wrist. When he looks up from his palm to your face, he’s surprised to see that your eyes aren't menacingly calculating or searching for release from fear. Instead, you look on in astonishment.

He sees the reflection of his flames in your eyes and from that circled mirror, a tiny nibble of his conscience starts to ebb with pride of his quirk.

After gushing about how pretty his flames look, you commit the color to memory. Dashing out of the stall to search for a dress, humming a tune when you envision his reaction to seeing you in such a nice, quaint dress on such a special day.

He perks up once you unlock the door, expecting you to change and show him what you’ve found. But instead, he’s met with your smiling face and what seems to be a dress -shrouded in a velvet coverup. “Don’t look so disappointed.” You wag your finger in front of his face. “You’ll see it soon.”

When December rolls by with chilly air as company, you start to see Touya less and less. He never does tell you what exactly it is he does while out doing villain work. Though, he did tell you that his absences would occur more and more since he and his league were working hard to take down a villain organization.

Your eyebrows had furrowed at that. “I thought villains were supposed to band together,” you asked, head resting on his thigh as you stared up at his face. “Not ones with different philosophies,” he had said, hand suspiciously inching closer and closer to your chest. You hummed, still confused.

It might sound naive, but you couldn’t find it in you to care. Hero society didn’t interest you. You couldn’t say villains did either but Touya was one. One of the bigshots.

Once, when you’d seen him on the little tv in the corner of your break room, it took a lot in you to not crack a smile. Though the idea of bringing chaos into the world with wide arms made your nerves rack with trepidation, you had Touya, and that seemed like enough.

Fortunately, Touya not being home was a benefit to your plan. You’d already scheduled your days off for work and booked the reservations for the fancy restaurant that was at least an hour’s drive from your apartment building. It was hard work, but for Touya’s birthday, it was all worth it.

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Shigaraki Tomura does not like to be lied to.

If he had written commandments for the people he came across, that would be his first line, golden engraved. It’s an unexplainable feeling he gets. If he could, he’d describe it as an itchy, hot coil that warps across his skin. It’s not painful, it’s simply annoying. And he feels it nearly every day. The scars that mar his neck being a result of it.

Why does the world have to be riddled with so many liars?

Dabi’s a liar, he knows that much. Hawks, that red-winged hero may be one too, but he’d deal with that when things finally came into play.

Now, he focuses on the man Dabi truly is. Villains lie. Shigaraki knows this, he’s a villain too. But- he tells the truth when it comes to his goals.

He tells the truth with what he wants.

What he wants LOV to bring.

What he wants society to flood with.

So why couldn’t Touya Todoroki do the same?

Shigaraki Tomura’s smart and Dabi is a fool to not see this. Who came up with the plans? The missions? The very concept of LOV? Sure, AFO had shaped him into who he was today but he was the same man locked in Tartarus, not Tomura.

When Tomura finds the roots of Dabi’s lies through Kurogiri’s peering eyes. It takes an hour of pleading for the ghastly man to convince Tomura not to find Dabi and disintegrate him into a fine pile of dust.

“Why should I!” Tomura shouts, his ruby eyes glaring into Kurogiri’s yellow ones. “He lied to me.” Shigaraki spits out the word so hastily and it’s as if saying the word itself was a sin of its own. Kurogiri nods, silently transmitting his words of understanding, not wanting to raise his temper even higher.

“But Dabi’s an important member of the League, Tomura.” Kurogiri coaxes. “In a week or so, we’ll be off to fight with M.L.A. If anything give him a warning, a threat. Just don’t kill the boy.” Shigaraki takes a second to glare at Kurogiri but eventually, his shoulders sag with defeat.

Even though Dabi had committed the gravest sin, he’d show mercy.

Begrudgingly, he grabs the cup of orange juice from Kurogiri’s hand, his thoughts flying at a fast pace, anger refusing to subside. All until his thinking cogs get stuck on one idea, one thought.

The thought crawls out from his mind and paints his expression with one of sickening glee. His smile so wide, that rivulets of blood dribble down from his cracked lips. His tongue darts out to lap up the tangy liquid as he gets high on this idea, on this revelation.

Shigaraki Tomura needs Dabi but Shigaraki Tomura does not need you.

Tomura knows everything about you, your background, your parents, the countless homes you had to reside in, where you live as of now- where you and Dabi live as of now. Where you work and what exactly you’re planning to do on the 15th day of December. It’s terrifyingly easy to uncover reservation logs.

You’re a pretty woman, Tomura could admit that. But you were a stain in his perfect, webbed canvas of the future. Those countless months where he had expected Dabi to be his righteous subordinate and listen to his demands were spent with you. Cooped up at your run-down apartment doing god knows what.

Tomura’s teeth grit as he digs into the flesh of his neck, specks of blood underneath his fingernails while he fervently scratches the already scabbed skin. Kurogiri glances over at him, seemingly reading his mind.

“I’m leaving.” Shigaraki swipes up from his dusty seat. Oh, how he missed the elegance of his LOV’s old hideout.

“Don’t forget AFO’s orders concerning Gigantomachia.”

Tomura blinks once, twice. “That thing has way too much HP.” He breathes out.

“For now, I need to do something else.” He whispers, bringing his embalmed hand to rest on his face.

››››››››››››››››››››› ~★~ ›››››››››››››››››››››

Whenever Touya thought of coincidences he thought of the word luck. It was a coincidence that Touya had been at the same bar as you, a coincidence that because of your lack of care for hero society that you’d glossed over the fact that he was a villain. But as Touya stood in your empty apartment, bloody and bruised from his prior fight, his connotation of coincidences slowly turned sour. A bitter taste sat on his tastebuds as he read over your note.

Happy Birthday Touya, my love.

meet me at the Burqoues Restaurant!

Take an uber…. I don’t have any money for one

(using it on the restaurant money)

so I’ll just take my car.

p.s. you’ll get to see my dress.

It was a coincidence that the day he told you was his birthday was the very day the League of Villians had merged with the Meta Liberation Army. Touya didn’t know what this grappling hook of fear was, but as he saw that your Honda was still idly parked in that weird angle you always had a habit of doing -it came to take its hold around his neck.

Maybe you’d actually found a couple of bucks and took an uber instead. Right?

You were probably in the restaurant, ordering that expensive champagne you really wanted to try. Ready to show that pretty, wide smile you always gave Touya when you saw him.

Right?

Touya couldn’t think- couldn’t breathe as he sped down the street. His grip on the wheel was so tight that his staples were close to popping. The loud ringing in his ears drowned out the persistent honking of cars that he nearly collided with.

What should’ve taken an hour took a measly twenty minutes. Without a second thought, Touya was already out of the car.

Upon entering, he received perturbed glances. He didn’t blame them, his clothes were bloodied, several staples unhinged from the skin.

“S-sir?” a tiny voice squeaked. He glanced at the receptionist desk, the bright chandeliers illuminating her meek stare that looked borderline terrified. He probably looked like a villain.

“D-do you have a reservation.”

“Yes.” He answered gruffly, head craning to see if he could catch sight of you.

“Your name please.”

“Touya.” He gritted, eyes focusing back on the receptionist who didn’t seem to believe him. She ducked her head to check, eyes scanning frantically.

“Oh, yes!” She smiled, it was too wide to be real but, frankly, Touya didn’t care. All he needed to know was that you were here.

“Table 15.” She pointed. “You won’t miss it.”

Touya didn’t bother to reply, legs already scrambling towards what he hoped would be you. Ignoring the stares that followed behind him.

Table 12

Table 13

Table 14

Table 15-

Touya's heart nearly stops, vision tinging with black as his knees nearly crumble beneath him.

You weren’t there.

››››››››››››››››››››› ~★~ ›››››››››››››››››››››

When Touya returned to the now, Paranormal Liberation Army hideout, Shigaraki had given him a smile so sweet that it had caused Touya's blood to run cold.

However, Touya did not pry, choosing to ignore the guilty glances the rest of the league sent his way. And he hated himself for it, hated the coward he'd grown to be in such a short period of time.

Later on that night, he returned to your desolate apartment, choosing to take a cigarette from your half- empty pack.

Yes, Touya despised cigarettes but at that moment they'd never tasted so sweet. His lungs didn't itch, he didn't feel abyssal. He just felt— soothed. As he took several drags, Touya silently pleaded for the nicotine to somehow make every fiber of his being believe that you had decided to finally leave.

That you had finally realized that a villain like him was no good and would only put your life at risk.

However, his façade had cracked when he'd found multiple files on your desolate laptop, drafts of your story in the making. The first page dedicated to your love for giving you the motivation to publish your first ever book.

And at that moment, for the first time in his godforsaken life, Touya wished he could cry. To show you, somehow that he was grateful for everything you had given him. That he was thankful and sorry for letting his mirror that reflected thousands of moments with you -your arms cradling him, him cradling you- shatter into fractured pieces.

As Touya Todoroki sat on a velvet sofa, arms wide and camera ready, a piece of his brain fabricated the image of you next to him --adorned in a sapphire blue dress, showing him that pretty, pretty smile that he’d grown to love, he told you —and told the world the story he never had the chance to.

To simply, atone.

#dabi x reader #dabi angst #dabi fluff #mha x reader #mha fluff #mha angst

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incorrect-ikevamp-quotes · 4 years

Note

Imagine if the suitors went to the beach for a whole day in the modern world...what crazy crap do you think will happen

Here are a handful of crazy and/or cute headcanons that came to mind! :D

-Mozart swatting away seagulls because HE IS TRYING TO EAT IN PEACE

-Jeanne watching him, MC offering him two water guns with a silent nod (sunglasses on, we’re going full meme)

-Jeanne then proceeds to shoot at them (no gulls were harmed in making of this promotional video) and his aim is impeccable it would be disturbing if the thwarted squawking wasn’t so funny

-Little kids start swarming around Jeanne asking how he’s so amazing and wanting to play team battles, inviting him to join

-Napoleon encourages him, and even Mozart joins in despite not liking getting wet very much (he wants Jeanne to have some positive fun times bc he BIIIIIIIG depressy)

-In the end they both admit to having fun, and one of the kids even teaches Jeanne a special ten step handshake (Jeanne has no idea what that was but the kiddo was smiling so he figured he’d go with it)

-HE AND MOZART STILL SECRETLY USE THE HANDSHAKE FOR FUNSIES BUT TELL NO ONE BECAUSE THEY DON’T LIKE F U N DON’T LOOK AT THEM

-Dazai, alternatively, gathers the fallen gull army and becomes their god with a singular cylinder of Pringles. No I will not elaborate--THE SEA GULLS GOT HER!!!!!!!!

-Spends most of the beach day wetting his feet in the tide pools and talking very earnestly to the gulls about this new thing he learned about called tax evasion while people pass by this fucker in full kimono at the beach and are convinced he’s lost it

-Dazai is very much not sane but we knew this already, offers sea shells to little kids that ask him what he’s doing and tells them to listen to the secrets bird friends can tell them

-If Dazai sounds like an Animal Crossing Villager, that was entirely by accident but remains no less true

-Surprising absolutely no one, Arthur suggests volley ball after watching people play and invites some pretty ladies to join him

-Arthur ends up needing two more people to play, so he invites Vincent and Theo (Vincent is so excited about trying something new that Theo can’t say no despite wanting to make a volleyball-shaped crater in Arthur’s face)

-The funniest part about the volleyball game is that not only is Arthur a shit player (CANON WEAK ARMS FOOL) Theo destroys with his spikes, and Vincent’s reach is insane--the two brothers end up becoming the talk of the beach

-I just laugh imagining Vincent sincerely complimenting people around him and the ladies swooning because he’s just so nice and pretty is he even real

-Men aren’t happy about that^TM but at the sight of Theo’s defensive glower they keep their malicious traps shut--which turn on whichever girls weren’t interested in Vincent jahkslgjh

-**Kaguyasama narrator voice** Today on Arthur Shenanigans: Arthur loses

-Poor Isaac is hiding under the umbrella clutching sunscreen bc HE IS A PASTY BOY HELP HIM

-MC brought a few of the newest Maths/Physics books in her time for him to read, and while he doesn’t enjoy the intensity of the sun--not like vamp weakness, it’s just the strain on his body (too many stimuli too many people too much noise) that makes him tired and ultimately thirsty bc aberrant. But the change of scenery's not so bad.......

-MC laughs when she gets out of the water and the salt dries visibly on her skin, Isaac’s eyes bug out and he asks if it hurts (startles when Leo flicks sea water at him and asks how on earth they got in the water when it’s so cold!!!)

-Leo chats with him and he likes being able to draw theorems and the like in the sand, it’s like one big chalkboard (until a kid tramples across them in the middle of writing, POPPYCOCK!). Isaac ultimately has fun but prefers to stay inside poor bub

-Leonardo, surprising no one, falls asleep in the sand the second he gets there HE IS HOME (Italian beaches, amirite)

-MC decides to, after a point, bury him fully in the sand for shits

-Comte notices and aids in her shenanigans from his beach chair, snickering the whole time

-When the two are satisfied they go for a swim together, trusting Leo to look after Isaac if need be (even if he’s a mummy rn)

-Comte is relieved to hear that she knows how to swim, but also watches carefully and doesn’t let her drift out too far by keeping closer to the shore himself (riptides!!!! can be!!!!!!! dangerous!!!!!!!!!!) if he had his way (he would never impose but he worries ;-;) she’d be wearing floaties SAFETY FIRST

-They splash at each other like maniacs and chat amiably until they start swimming away as fast as possible when Leo wakes up, laughing

-How do we know that Leo woke up?

-Because he sat up ramrod straight and a tower of sand fell. He then proceeded to jump up and sprint to the water despite Isaac’s startled cries about being careful, and swam after them like a shark to get his revenge (it was like something out of an anime s2g)

-Mostly just tugs on MC’s leg, picks her up in the water, and yeets her across in retaliation; really harmless, she’s cackling the whole time

-Dunks Comte’s head in the water while he’s being scolded, and MC has to de-escalate their increasingly dangerous shenanigans before the life guard comes after them LMFAO

-They concede only bc MC looks sad/worried abt being kicked out, and agree to keep things fun FIGHT TO THE DEATH LATER TONIGHT

-Napoleon goes for a nice long walk along the shoreline and climbs the rocks if he finds any til he gets to the top (he does not go to his happy place HE GOES TO HIS HIGH LONESOME PLACE) wishes that Jupiter could be here to enjoy the brine

-Our boy Napoleon is simply just vibin he loves the beach. A little further off the sound of people is p muted, it’s just the crashing waves and crisp smell of salt, the light breeze ruffling his hair

-Sebas is absolutely watching through binoculars and writing down how majestic Napoleon is while making sure no one gets lost/wrecked as he takes notes

Bonus: since volleyball games can often happen back to back on a sizable beach, the boys^TM were playing and Arthur called out “Theo duck!!!!” and just as Theo was saying “Are you fucking kidding me did you really think I’d--T H W A C K” Theo gets nailed in the back of the head (Arthur later died after being put in a headlock)

Shakespeare didn’t feel like playing volley ball and didn’t have much else to do (can’t swim and has no interest), so he just sat back and tried to throw Theo off his game as much as possible

Por ejemplo: Theo misses a serve and Shakespeare just “For never was there a story of more woe; O bard Alexa, verily, play us Despacito” “SHUT THE FUCK UP”

Jeanne also gets hit by a stray volley ball, but when Vincent said “Oh no, Jeanne, duck!” he has one of either two reactions: 1. Boulevard of Broken Dreams plays obnoxiously loud as he dodges inhumanly fast 2. he quacks, gets nailed, and doesn’t react because he doesn’t have any brain cells to damage

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luxaofhesperides · 3 years

Text

there in the tower.

A Sleeping Beauty inspired dark fantasy fic.

for ORV RARE PAIR WEEK 2021 @orv-week; day one, prompt: fairy tale

also on ao3.

. . .

They say that the dragon is guarding a princess. After all, dragons will always kidnap princesses and no one else. Who else is so valuable? So important in the kingdom? So weak? So when the dragon flew through the sky and curled around the base of a large tower, it seemed obvious that there was a princess inside, awaiting rescue.

Here’s the thing, though: Na Bori is not a princess.

She’s a seamstresses daughter, a common girl who doesn’t attract much attention from others. So why had the dragon taken her?

Of course, Lee Jihye had no way to know for sure that Na Bori was taken until she actually goes to the tower, but Na Bori had disappeared and a dragon appeared the next day. There were investigations, of course; nobility keeps track of their daughters and what bloodlines they marry into. Every princess and noble girl in the continent is accounted for. People have speculated that there may be a missing princess, perhaps born out of wedlock, or a sickly, weak girl who had never been introduced to society. And then they wondered if they should even bother rescuing the kidnapped girl if they weren’t respectably nobility.

Lee Jihye had to run out of town because of that one. Apparently starting a bar fight and smashing a chair over a marquis’ son is a bad move.

The barely suppressed panic thrums in her chest, filling the empty spaces between her ribs as she continues her journey to the tower.

No one has seen Na Bori since the dragon appeared. No one had looked, either. Who would care for a seamstresses daughter? But Lee Jihye has been besides Na Bori for years, has grown up with her, has never known anyone so bright and clever and kind.

The thought of Na Bori gone forever, trapped in a tower because no one cared to look makes her furiously blink tears out of her eyes. No one else is looking, but Lee Jihye. She would never stop until Na Bori was safe by her side again.

Here’s another thing: Lee Jihye is not a knight. She is training to be one, under the instruction of an old warrior who has settled down to live the last years of his life in peace. There are other knights and princes traveling to the tower, fighting beasts and bandits in order to rescue the poor maiden trapped besides a dragon, hoping to gain glory and honor for their deeds. Lee Jihye just wants her best friend back.

It’s easy enough to avoid them; Lee Jihye’s been dodging them for weeks, knowing she’s too tense to handle anyone’s company. These nobles are planning to gain fame or riches or a wife out of this. The last knight who had said something about pitiful women always clinging to their saviors got his teeth knocked out and a concussion from how hard Lee Jihye punched him. She left him lying on the side of the road, fists shaking as she desperately tried to erase thoughts of Na Bori married to a pig like him.

The less time spent with others, the better.

She cuts down another branch in her way and dives deeper into the forests that surround the castle.

“But what if you get sent far away?” she asks, stabbing her needle especially viciously through the fabric.

Lee Jihye is rather happy that Na Bori doesn’t want her to go. The rare occasion where Na Bori clings to Lee Jihye instead of the other way around are moments memorized and held onto fondly. She knows that there is no one in this world closer to her than Na Bori, knows that she’s the person who knows Na Bori best, but it’s nice to hear that she’s wanted.

Smiling, Lee Jihye reaches out and takes one of Na Bori’s hands, stopping her from tearing through the fabric. “I’ll still come back,” she promises, “Where else would I come home to?”

“And if you get hurt?”

“I’ll just get strong enough that nothing can hurt me.”

Na Bori is mollified, and it shows in how she relaxes and finally sets down her sewing. “You still have a long way to go then. Strong knights don’t cry over a little tumble down the hill.”

Lee Jihye flushes and scowls. “Hey! It was my first assignment and it was a steep hill. I hit a lot of things on the way down! It hurt! If anything, it would be weird if I wasn’t

crying when she wakes up. Lee Jihye faintly hears Na Bori’s voice whisper, “Crybaby,” but it’s only wistful thinking. Forcing her aching body up, Lee Jihye wipes away her tears and prepared herself for another agonizing day cutting through the thorny and impossibly large brambles that block entry to the tower.

“Okay,” she tells herself, “You’re almost there. Na Bori is waiting for you, so you can’t give up yet.”

Many of the others have turned back. She no longer sees other groups making their way to the tower. It’s been eerily silent for the past two days.

If she had been anyone else, if she had been sane, Lee Jihye would have turned around too. The entire area felt unwelcoming, downright hostile sometimes, and made every nerve in her body scream at her to turn around. A heavy pit of despair grows in her stomach and the hopelessness it causes makes her physically sick a few times.

Still, Lee Jihye presses onwards.

The longer it takes, the more she worries, her brain providing morbid images of Na Bori’s body rotting in the tower, or being eaten by the dragon, or any other terrible thing that could happen to kidnapped people. It has Lee Jihye on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and she’s been teetering on that cliff for a few days now.

There’s no doubt that the area around the tower is full of dark magic. It gets into her head, twists around her bones, squeezes the air out of her lungs and slowly suffocates her each day. It gives her nightmares, makes her relive memories that feel like they’re happening again, like Na Bori is there with her only for wakefulness to destroy the illusions. Lee Jihye has only been in this dark magic infected forest for two days. Na Bori has been missing for a week and a half.

The fear she feels for Na Bori and what she’s had to endure only makes things worse.

Lee Jihye hacks through another large thorny bramble and continues in deeper, ignoring the weariness that makes her want to collapse and never get up. Thorns have caught on her with each step she takes; most of the cuts clot up quickly, but the rest leave a trail of blood to guide her back out.

The tower doesn’t look any closer.

She lifts her heavy arms to cut through another branch.

Na Bori shrieks and jumps onto Lee Jihye, clinging with all her might. Startled, Lee Jihye stumbles back a few steps, trying to regain her balance without dropping Na Bori. She wraps her arms around Na Bori, holding her up, and looks around for the source of her distress.

Crawling across the road is a centipede.

Lee Jihye can’t help but laugh, easily carrying Na Bori away from it, continuing down the road to her house.

Na Bori, still holding onto Lee Jihye and making no moves to get down, smacks her shoulder. “Don’t laugh!”

“I can’t believe you call me a crybaby when you jump into my arms as soon as you see a bug.”

“It’s a perfectly reasonably fear! Nothing should have that many legs, or those weird eyes, or pincers, or--ugh!” She shudders, scaring herself by imagining the very things she hates about bugs.

It’s cute, how insistent she is that bugs are weird, gross, and wholly unnatural. Lee Jihye has listened to these complaints for many years, and she wouldn’t mind listening for many years more.

“Don’t worry,” she says, adjusting her grip around Na Bori’s waist. “I’ll always be here to rescue you from the evil, scary bugs.”

Na Bori tucks her face into the crook of Lee Jihye’s neck. Her warm breath sends shivers down her spine; it takes everything in her not to stumble or drop Na Bori.

“My valiant knight,” she says, and Lee Jihye can hear the smile in her voice.

Who needs kings and queens? The only person she ever wants to dedicate her sword to is already in her arms. And if asked, Lee Jihye would gladly dedicate the rest of her life.

It’s just. There are little moments between them, where Lee Jihye thinks Na Bori also wants more, wants to push the limits of their friendship into new territory, but what if it’s just wistful thinking? They’ve shared what feels like their whole lives together, and there’s no guarantee that Na Bori wouldn’t leave one day. But if she stayed… If she stayed, Lee Jihye would give

up and let the brambles consume her body. She doesn’t know how long it’s been, how far she’s gone. Dreams and reality feel the same and she can’t quite tell which is which anymore. The tower is still the same distance away it was when she first saw it rising above the brambles.

Everything hurts. Her ears are ringing. She’s been bleeding sluggishly for days now, always torn apart by new thorns. There’s no point in trying to patch herself up when the next set of brambles is ready to rip her flesh apart.

The tip of her sword drags through the dirt. She’s given up trying to cut a path through to the towers. Instead, Lee Jihye settles for twisting between the branches, uncaring for the thorns that reach out for her greedily.

Whatever dark magic saturates this place is slowly killing her. Lee Jihye doesn’t know much about magic as she’s never had a talent for it, but she knows enough to understand that this is incredibly powerful and dangerous magic.

What does it have to do with Na Bori?

The answer is: nothing good. Who cares about the specifics? All Lee Jihye has to know is that the magic is going to (if it hasn’t already) hurt Na Bori. The need to save her from this, to bring her back somewhere safe, is what keeps her going despite how painful it is.

As much as her body screams at her to give up and just lie down until she withers away, Lee Jihye pushes forwards, ignoring every ache and cut and bruise.

She will get to the tower.

Na Bori will come home.

Their hands bump together and they both reflexively jerk away. The air between them is awkward for a moment, then Na Bori laughs and picks up the last apple slice and brings it up to Lee Jihye’s lips.

"Here,” she says sweetly, and Lee Jihye takes a bite, watches the juice trail down her fingers and wants more than anything to lick it away, to press kisses against Na Bori’s nimble hands, wants

to cry, to scream, to just be done with it. The tower looms above her, no closer and no farther, mocking her and she twists herself through another bramble, wincing as a thorn drags along her arm, beads of blood beginning to

fall into the river. The colorful leaves line the banks of the river and Lee Jihye watches as Na Bori carefully shifts through piles of leaves, searching for the mushrooms that she needed for dinner.

“Jihye, come here!” she calls, waving her over.

And Lee Jihye goes, as she always does. “What is it? Did you find

a way in, but it’s all just stone. No doors, no windows, just stone. She finally got past those horrible brambles, and now that she’s at the tower she can’t find a way in. It’s too tall for her to climb with her how exhausted she is. There’s no way up.

Lee Jihye can’t help but cry, screaming in frustration as she presses the heels of her palms against her eyes, trying to breathe through the sobs that force themselves out of her chest.

The magic has only gotten stronger. Dreams, memories, reality, it’s all mixing together. One moment she’s walking through town with Na Bori, the next she’s trying not to gut herself on a large thorn. One moment she’s cutting down a branch and the next she’s waking up then walking past the brambles then waking up and seeing Na Bori smile then waking up and waking up and waking up but she can’t remember falling asleep.

Is this a dream? Is she awake? Is the tower before her real or is this just another illusion?

She’s come all this way. She can’t go back, not without finding a way in that fucking

tower over her and Lee Jihye is sobbing as she watches they push Na Bori into the river. The one holding her back is laughing meanly, saying something about how no one would care about what happens to them, just two poor common girls who only have each other, bet their parents wouldn’t even notice them gone.

N a Bori is coughing up water in-between insults, and Lee Jihye whimpers as her arm is twisted more and more and any more will hurt her, will break her bones, their hands are too big and strong and no one is coming to save them and

"Get up Jihye!”

There is a dragon curled around the tower. It’s smaller than what she expected. Smaller than what she remembers. It stares at her, but it doesn’t attack.

It looks just as tired as she is.

“Hey,” Lee Jihye rasps out. “I just want her back. Please.”

The dragon huffs and drops its head to the ground. There is a collar around its neck, digging into its flesh. Dried blood colors the edges of the collar, and Lee Jihye feels sick to her stomach. Whatever magic is taking place here is vile enough to hurt a dragon, a creature of pure magic from the core of the planet.

Killing the dragon would be an act of mercy.

Lee Jihye approaches. It watches and doesn’t move. Its golden eyes are so tired; the dragon has already given up.

She raises her sword.

They are seven years old when they first meet. The new seamstress in town is delighted to see that her daughter will have a friend her age. She waves the two of them off to play and goes back into her store, ready to get started on mending clothes.

Na Bori grins, bright and lively; it’s the biggest smile Lee Jihye has ever seen, and she’s instantly enamoured.

"Hi! I’m Na Bori. Wanna play?”

"Sure! I’m Lee Jihye, I live down there,” she points behind them to the cluster of houses near the fields, “and you’re the first person I’ve met who’s my age!”

Na Bori doesn’t waste any more time talking. She grabs Lee Jihye’s wrist and drags her along. It’s the first touch she’s felt from someone outside her family that didn’t hurt. She’s gotten used to hiding from the local bullies and crying when they were done with her, but Na Bori’s hand around her wrist is what makes her feel like she’s splintering apart.

It’s a good feeling.

She follows along behind Na Bori, and remembers that kind touch whenever she thinks about why she loves Na Bori so much.

The collar falls to the ground. It was hard work cutting through it, but just because Lee Jihye doesn’t have a talent for magic doesn’t mean she can’t use it. It’s all about mana direction and intent. This forest is full of mana that feels rotten and wounded, but it is mana nonetheless, and Lee Jihye has spent days in it. It’s easy enough to focus on the memory of the first kindness another child showed her and use that to fuel the intent of help rather than harm .

The dragon blinks and some life returns to its eyes. It watches her carefully as she sheathes her sword and wipes the sweat off her brow.

“I helped you get out of the collar. Please help me too.”

And it does.

The dragon nudges its nose against her stomach and lets her climb on. She holds onto it’s large horns as it ascends and circles the tower. There is a single window in this entire tower, up at the top, and it is there that the dragon stops, using its claws to dig into the stone walls and cling to the tower so that Lee Jihye can climb in through the window.

It rumbles at her softly, and Lee Jihye pats its nose. “I’ll be back soon.”

The inside of the tower is dark save for the light that comes in through the window. It’s full of books and bones, strange symbols drawn on the wall and the floor. There is a man collapsed against a table, gaunt and covered in dried blood. His chest moves, the only sign that he’s not dead, and symbols are cut into his skin, turned black from channeling dark magic.

Lee Jihye doesn’t hesitate to run him through with her sword. He dies silently, not knowing the danger he was in the moment he stole Na Bori away.

That is, if Na Bori is even here. If she isn’t, Lee Jihye is going to have a breakdown, then go out and continue her search. But she’s sure that Na Bori is here.

She has to be.

In the back is another set of stairs that winds up, and Lee Jihye climbs them, leaving her sword out just in case.

It’s much darker up here, but still Lee Jihye can make out the bed and a person lying in it. There’s a table besides the bed, full of sharp objects she doesn’t know the use for, and small vials of blood. Dread fills Lee Jihye and she approaches the bed to get a closer look at who is on it.

Na Bori sleeps peacefully.

Her arms are bare and full of healing cuts. Lee Jihye collapses, half-laughing half-sobbing in relief. She reaches out and shakes Na Bori, trying to rouse her from her slumber, but Na Bori doesn’t stir.

She’s as still as a corpse.

Lee Jihye shakes her harder, then pats her cheek. “Bori-ya? Hey, Bori-ya, I’m here. I’m here to take you home. Wake up, will you? Please, wake up.”

Na Bori remains motionless. She’s never been a deep sleeper, or a still one. Seeing her so still and silent terrifies Lee Jihye.

“Please,” she whispers, grasping one of Na Bori’s hands and pressing her forehead against it. “Please, wake up.”

Lee Jihye sobs. She went through all this and now that she’s here, it doesn’t matter. Because Na Bori is stuck in a magical sleep that Lee Jihye can’t wake her from.

Desperate, Lee Jihye pulls on the rotting mana around them. Blood drips from her nose as she pushes herself through exhaustion and pain, letting the decay take root in her body as she tries to use magic to break Na Bori out of her enchanted sleep. It hurts so much, behind her eyes, in her throat, around her heart. It hurts but there’s nothing else she can do, so Lee Jihye keeps pulling the mana in, then pushing it into Na Bori through their joined hands, wishing wake up wake up wake up come back to me please I missed you so much please come back I want to go home please don’t make me leave you .

She’s not made for magic. Doesn’t really know how to use it and it takes a toll on her body. She barely notices that she’s stopped crying. She just doesn’t have the energy to make tears.

Lee Jihye resigns herself to death. Better than leaving without Na Bori. She slumps over, slowly losing her strength. Na Bori sleeps on.

They were supposed to have a future together. She wanted to find the courage to confess to Na Bori, to make a life with her, to become a knight for her. She wanted so much but she’ll never get it because their story ends here.

These are her final moments. She’s allowed to be greedy. Lee Jihye leans down and kisses Na Bori; their first and last kiss. She presses her lips against Na Bori’s mouth and just stays there, tired and weak.

Na Bori takes a breath.

And she kisses back.

"Why do you want to be a knight? Isn’t it scary?”

Was it? Lee Jihye had always thought the stories of adventures and fighting monsters was really cool. She says as much to Na Bori, who scrunches up her nose.

“But what if you get hurt or run into a really scary monster?” she asks, clutching the skirt of her dress in her fists, knuckles white.

“Then I’d fight back and come to you so you could help me! Being a knight might be a little scary, but I’d also be strong enough to defeat any scary thing that I find.”

“Would you save me if I was in danger?”

Lee Jihye grins and grabs Na Bori’s hand to link their pinkies together. “I promise that I will always save you.”

Na Bori has to support Lee Jihye as they both stumble down the stairs and make their way to the window, where the dragon is waiting. It coos at them, concerned, and Lee Jihye manages a weak smile that seems to reassure it.

They somehow manage to get onto the dragon, holding onto ridges of its back as it takes off and flies them away from the oppressive force of black magic.

“Jihye?” Na Bori murmurs from behind her, arms wrapped around Jihye’s waist as she leans against her back. “Thank you for coming to save me. I kept dreaming of you and our promise.”

“I told you didn’t I? I’ll always save you.” Lee Jihye wishes she could be cooler when she says it, but she’s exhausted and the relief of having Na Bori with her makes her voice small and weak.

Na Bori presses a kiss to the back of her neck. “Sleep. I’ll take care of you until we get home.”

Feeling like a child again, experiencing her first kind touch from another, Lee Jihye relaxes against Na Bori, and lets herself drift off as her heart splinters and fractures, then comes together whole.

#orv #orv week #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv fic #lee jihye #na bori #lee jihye/na bori #my writing

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thecomposerofstories · 3 years

Text

The Story of a Toy: The full story (So far, anyway, I still have a lot left to write, and any ideas are fully welcome! 💖)

~ The Story of a Toy~

UNDERSTANDINGS.

Amy didn’t understand it at first, why did play-time have to end? Why couldn’t they just play together, like they always did? But now she knew why.

Children grow up, and they leave. And her owner may forget the days they spent playing, and may not miss her the way she did, but Amy would remember, and as long as she did, she would be fine.

She hoped.

Her owner placed her carefully in a box, smiling sadly, as if she knew the small ragdoll she held was sentient, which was, of course, impossible.

Amy never understood the rule toys had to abide by, but always listened to them, because she had seen enough horror movies featuring dolls coming to life to know that humans frowned upon that sort of thing, and Amy, not wanting her owner to fear her or call an exorcist, stayed still.

But she had looked at her as if she were real. All those days spent running around in the park, lazing in the sun, her owner reading to her stories. Her owner’s favourite stories were always The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland. (Whom Amy’s owner had been named after)

Amy noticed that Dorothy, Alice and Wendy all wore blue, and travelled to fantasy worlds which by either flying, tornado, or Rabbit hole, respectively. And all were an allegory to leaving childhood. Which was an interesting coincidence. And much like those characters, Alice had to leave her childhood –and Amy- behind.

Shutting the box deftly, closing Amy in an only temporary darkness, Alice climbed up the steps of the attic.

Placing down the box beside the others, she left unceremoniously.

Amy moved her limbs dully, coming to life. She peered out from the box to get a closer look at her surroundings.

“Hello?” She called out tentatively. Using other objects placed within the box, -some books, old records, and a jewellery box- she clambered out, tumbling over. She coughed at the dust, adjusting her dark hair so it didn’t blind her. “H-Hello? Is anybody there?” She called out again, a little louder.

Nothing. She was the only toy there. Other toys had been sold, lost, and some had even lost hope in Alice and left. All but Amy.

Amy, feeling aloof and uncertain, just stood there.

I’ll wait, she thought. Someone, at some point, will open my box and play with me, or hand me off to a place where I could be played with… or something, hopefully.

And so the poor, steadfast ragdoll stood, waiting to be played with.

CHAPTERS

Reading was always a favourite pastime of Amy’s, a habit she had picked up from Alice. And it seemed to be reading that was keeping her sane. She read any books she could find:

Horror. (for days that she was bored and needed a scare, to give her an extra kick of adrenaline to keep her going,)

Picture books, (Her favourite was one about Dinosaurs, her favourite being the Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the book –Which to Amy didn’t seem that factually accurate- the T- Rex was described as ‘Fearsome and scary’, but she didn’t really think so, especially since she had read a famous quote: 'Green is the prime colour of the universe, and that from which it's loveliness arises', she reckoned anyone who was green would know that.)

Comedies. (Which made Amy laugh even if she didn’t get it.)

Even a huge dictionary titled: Strange Words and Their Meanings. (She adored going through the pages, memorising each word carefully.)

Over the years, Amy had read all of these books, more times than she could count.

Rest of the time spent in the attic she looked out of the window, while perched on a tower of boxes where she could look out but and no-one could see her. Like she didn’t exist. Either with a book or gazing dully out at the passing world outside, in her own little reverie.

Today was just like any other day. Or, it started out like one. Amy knew Alice’s parents had moved out of their house, a few months ago, and was wondering when someone else would come along.

Today was the day! A blue mini-van-like car parked itself in front of the garage, Amy guessed, a moving-van in tow. ‘Egg-Man-Movers’ was spelt along the truck, with funny looking literal egg-like man moving a bunch of boxes with the letters that spelt the name on the truck.

As the car stopped, a little boy, around six or seven, jumped out the car, holding two small figures Amy couldn’t quite see, though she was certain one was wearing a hat. The boy wore a hat, too, a red one. A woman also stepped out of the car, presumably the boy’s mother, and they both got a small creature, probably a baby, out of the car too.

Amy jumped down from the window sill, enthusiastically spinning and laughing. “It’s today! It’s today! A new owner! Yes!” She squealed, she did a fist pump in the air and danced around like some madwomen, spinning, until she tripped over her feet. Laughing, of course.

This was what she was waiting for! Amy loved reading, but do you know what she loved about it the most?

Starting new chapters.

NOTHING

Nothing.

Non-one.

Amy expected for someone to bring some boxes into the attic, notice her and take her out, but no. Why bring stuff with you if you’re just going to put it away and never see it was the only explanation.

Sometimes, she could hear the boy, and the mother, and the baby.

Sometimes, she could hear other voices coming from downstairs, too. The child’s toys, she figured.

They’re having so much more fun than me, I bet. Amy thought. She was never really a bitter person, but she couldn’t help but be a little jealous. OK, a lot jealous. But what could she do?

Wait.

That was it, all she could do. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She mantra’d in her head.

She was sick of it. She wanted to play! To have conversations! Where was the Adventure? While the toys in the little boy’s room were having much more fun than her. Amy elbowed a box in frustration.

A pile of old records and magazines fell on her head.

Yearsshe had been waiting. Decades, even. Amy used some spare chalk to keep track of the days she’d spent in the attic. Today was day number sixteen thousand, six hundred and eighty-six, to be exact.

Today was just another number, it was late afternoon. Amy stepped down from the boxes, covering the window with a curtain. She walked into the middle of the dusty room, thinking. Amy knew she could climb out the window, what if someone sawher? What if she slipped? What if, if she successfully got to a near window ledge, and the window was locked? What if the toys threw her back out for intruding? She couldn’t just stay here forever… but what if she did?

All these thoughts coursed through her cotton-stuffed head, her thoughts so loud she nearly didn’t hear the attic stairs being used, creaking with each step.

She was so shocked she ran and hid behind a vase, narrowly escaping being seen. Through a small hole in the box she peeked at the mother of the little boy and baby as she dumped some boxes and left.

TOYS IN THE ATTIC

“W-where are we?” a voice whispered nervously, other voices replied, “How am I supposed to know?!” “S-sorry…” “Let’s have a look!”

Amy stayed behind the shelf, peeking from behind a vase. She’d had been longing to speak to other toys for so long, so why was mind screaming for her to hide?

Four toys stepped out from the box. First, a rather foreign, futuristic-looking action hero who was a bit taller than Amy, with all sorts of fancy buttons and gadgets attached to them. “Which planet is this?” he asked his friend, a much taller, lanky ragdoll who wore boots with spurs and a cow-print vest over his checked shirt. he straightened his brown hat, taking in the surroundings. “It’s not another planet, Buzz, it’s just the attic.” He said calmly, or dryly, depending on how you read it. The third toy literally sprung out of the box, as he had a spring for a body with a dog’s head and backside at opposite ends. His springy body rattled and made a satisfying noise.

The last figure surprised Amy. A strange creature at first, well, all the toys looked strange and new to her, but this was by far the strangest.

He was a little bit shorter than the one in the hat, but only because he was hunched low, fumbling with his little arms. He was green, his scales made of plastic. Amy tried to place where she had seen a creature like that before, before it hit her: It was a dinosaur! A Tyrannosaurus Rex, to be exact.

She was so enamoured with the creature she leaned against the floral vase to get a closer look, as he observed the room with his friends.

But she leaned to hard, and the vase tipped and smashed. Amy ducked behind some plates before the strangers saw her.

The four toys turned to the sound of the noise, terrified. ‘Buzz’, as his friend had called him, pointed a shining red light attached to his arm at the broken pieces of porcelain.

“What was that?!” the Dinosaur whisper-screamed, hiding behind his friend. The Springy Dog turned to his friends, equally stricken, stating, “We gotta find a way outta here!”

The one in the hat nodded “You’re right, Slink.” he turned to the trap door at his feet, which got them there in the first place. He pulled at the latch, but it wouldn’t open. “It’s locked!” “And the dormer is sealed… it seems we’re trapped.” Buzz fathomed, after analysing the door on the floor.

The dinosaur started to freak out. “We can’t stay in here forever!” Buzz cut him off, “Come on, Rex, calm down!” This only made the poor thing ramble on more. “But what if Andy forgets we were in that box? We’ll be stuck here forever!” “Stop it!” the other three shouted at him, annoyed.

Amy felt the overwhelming need to go and comfort the poor thing, or, Rex, as they called him. She understood how he felt. It was dark and gloomy, (or Mirk, as Strange Words and Their Meanings would say.) She couldn’t blame him for being scared.

Amy wanted to help the other toys, but was confused as to how to introduce herself. She couldn’t just step out of nowhere, as Rex might just die of fright, and she didn’t want that.

Instead, she just kept listening to the other toys’ conversations.

“Maybe we can find another way out of here?” The one in the hat thought to himself. “Great idea, Woody!” Buzz praised, before striking a pose and exclaiming, “I’m ready for a new mission! Buzz Lightyear will have you out of this attic in a flash!”

The other toys just stared, deadpan, at him.

Slink spoke up, “It won’t be easy, we need to find something to light this place up first” Woody agreed, “Yeah, It’s getting dark, soon we won’t be able to see anything” “Oh, I don’t like this at all! I’m afraid of the dark!” Rex sputtered, Buzz shushed him “Quiet, I’m trying to analyse the problem” he thought for a moment, before declaiming, “We can use my laser for light!” he shined his laser into Slink’s eyes as an example. “I don’t think it’s enough to light the whole place up, Buzz.” Woody pressed gently, Slink scoffed, rubbing his eyes with his paws “Yeah, but it’s enough to blind me!” Amy giggled at their banter, as quietly as she could. “Maybe there’s some Christmas lights in here or something”

Woody though aloud, Rex nodded. “Yeah, there’s loads of old stuff here, we’re sure to find something!” Woody placed a hand on Buzz’s shoulder, “And you can always use your laser to see what’s inside the boxes” Buzz grinned.

“I’ll look in the closet!” Slink said over his shoulder, while Woody looked behind boxes with Buzz.

Rex gulped, standing in the middle of the room. He went to inspect the broken vase by the shelves. He was now so close Amy could see all the detailing in his plastic skin.

His eyes locked with hers, eyes wide, and he yelped in surprise. So did Amy.

“Rex! What happened?” Buzz called, his friends following him and rushing to the panicking dinosaur. Amy fell out from her hiding spot, finally exposed. What could she say? “H-h-hello…?” she said, awkwardly, to the other toys who stared at her.

FRIEND FOR LIFE

“Hello” Slink said first, going up to the frightened ragdoll and speaking softly. “It’s okay, we won’t hurt you, do ya have a name?” Amy got up from the floor, dusting off her denim dress nervously. “I-I’m Amy…” the ragdoll stuttered. Woody tipped his hat and shook her hand. “Well, nice to meet you, Amy, I’m Woody.” “Nice to meet you too.” Amy responded nervously. Buzz shook her hand next, firmer than Woody. “I am Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger. I mean, well not really…well, it’s a long story.” Amy smiled. Slink was next. “I’m Slinky Dog, but you can call me Slinky or Slink if you want.”

Rex was last, he approached her more cautiously, shaking her hand nervously. “I’m Rex, nice to meet you, Amy.” he said warmly, before asking quickly afterwards, “Did I scare you? I’m supposed to be scary, ya’see, so please, tell me honestly.” Amy stuttered a response “N-nice to meet you, too, R-Rex, and I was terrified... But I’ve always wanted to meet a dinosaur.” Rex grinned bashfully, fiddling with his hands. “Really?” “Y-yes.” Rex giggled “I like you, Amy!”

Woody laughed and rolled his eyes. “You’ve made a friend for life, now, Amy. Do you know if there’s any way to get us out of here?” the cowboy asked, (not that Amy would know he was one at this point), but she answered, nodding, “There’s a window above those boxes there, behind that curtain.” she gestured at the tower of boxes in front of them, laid out in just a way that they looked like stairs.

Woody, Buzz and Slinky descended up the boxes. Rex looked at Amy, grinning. “Aren’t you gonna join us?” “Really? C-can I?” “Of course! We can’t just leave you in here! It’s scary! Besides, it’d be nice to have a you around!” Amy smiled, climbing the boxes to reach the others.

Once they reached the top, Buzz pushed back the curtain and while the other toys climbed out. Amy was last. She took one last look at the attic, before straightening her back and walking out on the window ledge.

ANDY’S ROOM.

A breeze hit Amy in the face as she stood on the window ledge outside. Her dark hair flew in front of her face in annoying tendrils. The sky had darkened considerably, which made it even more thrilling. Rex shivered, “Oh, it’s so high!” Amy nodded, looking down at the ground. Amy watched as the three other toys grabbed the drainpipe and slid down to the window just below. Woody waved from below “Come on! Someone could see us!” Amy stuttered “B-but what if I fall?” “You’ll be fine, I swear!” Amy smiled wearily. She gripped the drainpipe, took a deep breath, jumped and slid down to the side of the window.

She screamed internally, holding on for dear life. Her legs and arms wrapped around the pole, eyes looking down at the pavement where she would surely end up. She had only been still for about a few seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. Could she do this? Would she do this?

She jumped.

Landing in a heap, nearly knocking Woody and Buzz over.

Rex leapt next. He couldn’t properly jump, so Amy and Woody had to pull him into the window. “I’m alive!” Rex breathed, Woody rolled his eyes for what must have been the second or third time today.

Woody turned to Amy. “Welp, welcome to Andy’s room.” Amy turned to face the room.

It used to be Alice’s.

Now, everything was different. It was a strange feeling, nostalgia mixed with the feeling of being in a new place.

The shelf was always there, yes, still there, same colour, too, only with new bits and bobs and toys and books placed on it. Everything else was foreign and strange. Even the wallpaper.

Amy stepped on a desk that wasn’t there before, well, there was a desk there before, but it wasn’t this one.

Amy watched as the four other toys jumped down from the desk to a chair to the floor and copied their example, sort of. She fell in a tangle on the floor.

A group of toys surrounded the five, the first to speak was a funny looking creature with a mustache and a bowler hat with a Brooklyn accent, akin to the shape of a potato “Who’s the newbie?” he asked, Rex replied quickly “This is Amy, we rescued her from the attic!” Amy spoke up gently “Well, rescued is not a word I would choose, really, I’d say they more encouraged me to leave, I say they, but really-” a female voice cut her off “Well, whoever you are, welcome”

The speaker of these words was a porcelain doll, much taller than Amy, who smiled warmly yet dryly, with a skirt that flared out so wide it reminded Amy of a parachute. She carried a long blue cane, holding it professionally.

A small cluster of sheep made bleating noises at her feet. Amy guessed she must be a Shepard.

“I’m Bo Peep.” She stated, extending a hand. Amy shook it nervously. This woman radiated beauty, with her shiny porcelain skin and her golden curls. Amy felt slightly intimidated and uncomfortable under her blue gaze. “Hello, B-Bo, heh, that rhymes, doesn’t it? Nice to m-meet you, and I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you that same Bo Peep from that nursery rhyme?”

Bo smiled, amused at the ragdoll’s nervousness and tendency to drabble, letting down her guard a little bit. “Yes, I’m the same Bo from the nursery rhyme.” The ragdoll grinned uneasily. She remembered when Alice was little, she would read nursey rhymes.

“Andy’s comin’!” a toy yelled, a piggy bank whom Amy hadn’t been introduced too yet.

The other toys zipped in different directions at lightning speed, Amy didn’t know what to do.

So she fell to the ground, inanimate.

~A Dinosaur's Distress~

REPLACEMENT.

“These toys are so much better than my old ones, Mom!” Andy called as he rushed into his room.

He placed the big paper bag with the words ‘Dinosaur Museum’ he was carrying on his desk. “I never knew how many cooler dinosaurs there were!”

Rex cowered, his vision felt like he was watching the whole scene through a fish-eye lenses. He lay frozen, watching Andy tear away the plastic wrapping and boxes the toys were in.

“Andy! Dinner!” Andy’s mother called. Andy trudged downstairs reluctantly down stairs. “Coming!”

Rex felt like he was being choked, his mind clogged with rambling thoughts.

He’d always dreaded this.

Shakily, he moved his limbs, walking towards the desktop. He twiddled with his hands nervously and winced, so wrapped up with what could be up there that he didn’t notice his friends were missing.

He called out tentatively, “H-h-hello…?” he squeaked. The room felt both big and small, a nauseous, nightmarish feeling. But the most horrifying thing was how Rex was alone. No-one could stop him from panicking this time.

The new toys arose and jumped, slithered, crawled, and trudged down from the desk, towering over Rex and cornering him so quickly it was as if they were always there.

“Andy don’t need you no more…” one toy –if he, or maybe it, could be called one- slurred, grey saliva clung to his teeth in thick, sticky ropes. His scales rough and uneven, grotesque muscles rippling in a sickly shade of orange.

“You’re weak. Pathetic. Andy needs a toy that deserves him.” A purple one said, sickly yellow eyes narrowing. This one had many horns adorned to its face and body like piercings. Rex had never seen dinosaurs’ like them before.

The toys seemed to strangely multiply, each one different. Each one better them him. Scarier than him. And much stronger than him. They all taunted him. His anxiety, his arms, his cowardice.

One grabbed his arm with sharp taloned fingers, snickering. “Look at this! What kinda toy factory allowed this thing on sale?” He snickered. Others did the same. Jabbing and poking him till he could take it no more. Rex screamed.

“Stop! please,” he sobbed, pulling away and backing up against Andy’s starry wallpaper. The grotesque creatures just laughed bitterly, prodding him and pushing him and even hitting him.

“Oh, does that hurt?” (Saying it hurt was an understatement.)

“Look at those stupid arms! So flimsy!”

“Look at you! who would want you?”

“Pathetic!”

“Idiot!”

Rex tried screamed for his friends “S-STOP! PLEASE! H-HELP!”

The toys sneered. “They can’t hear you!” the tallest, largest one slurred with his sickly tongue. He was the worst-looking of the lot. His eyes bloodshot and his arms long and rippling with muscle. His bumpy scales the colour of green toxic waste, so ugly looking it glowed. His voice sounded like an earth-quake, loud and booming, yet scratchy, like nails against glass. “But if they did, why would they care? You’re their punching bag. Even they make fun of you!”

They began to taunt him again. Rex tried to cancel them out, squeezing his eyelids shut.

They laughed. Rex screamed again, though it did nothing.

He began to lose consciousness.

BREATHE.

“Rex?” Amy whispered, nudging him a little. Rex had been placed on the bed by Andy, -Who was getting ready for school- and had fallen asleep. Amy had been reading underneath the bed up until he had started muttering in his sleep.

Rex bolted awake, breathing heavily and shallowly, hyperventilating. All the other toys in the room turned and stared at him. Amy looked at him with a concerned expression. He’d been getting more and more jumpy lately since it was declared that Andy was going to the Museum.

Rex jolted awake, shaking like he’d seen a ghost.

Woody, who was also on the bed, went to the dino to see what was wrong. Rex pinned his small hands on the cowboy’s shoulders. “Where’s Andy?!” He said urgently, shaking the confused cowpoke. Woody looked at Rex, bewildered. “Getting ready to leave for school? Is everything alright?” “NO! Everything is NOT alright!” Rex screamed hysterically “Andy’s going to the Dinosaur Museum, and I’m gonna get replaced!” “No he’s not! If Andy was gonna get a new toy, he would have made some withdrawals. And Hamm would know about it.” Woody argued. Then he turned to Hamm, who was on the desk. “Hamm, has Andy made any withdrawals?” the cowboy asked. Hamm looked solemn. “Nope, only deposits.”

“See?” Woody said, trying to calm the dinosaur down. He did. A little.

The toys heard Andy talking to his Mother from inside the room. “Mom, can I have some money to bring to the Museum?” “Sure! I’ll give you five dollars.” “Thanks Mom!”

Hamm watched them leaves outside from the window, with Molly, of course, driving away in the car.

Rex froze. “So it’s true… I am going to be replaced…” he said sadly, quietly, his stress building up from there. “What should I do… what should I do… WHAT SHOULD I DO WOODY WHAT SHOULD I DO!?” Rex screamed, his claws dug in Woody’s shoulders again, shaking him.

The some of the toys –Buzz, Mr. Potato Head, Bo and Hamm- swarmed around the bed. “Rex! Calm down! Please!” Rex couldn’t hear them. he kept fretting. “I’m gonna be replaced! I can’t deal with this! Woody, I CAN’T! “REX!” Woody yelled, shrugging him away.

Amy watched on from behind, unsure what to do. Rex was stressing out, hyperventilating and fretting, all the toys swarming around him, cocooning him in loud noise and emotions, yelling at him to quieten down or he’ll wake the neighbours. Amy moved in front of Rex quickly, to give him some space and probably calm him and everyone else down, when a hand smacked her in the face and she fell to the duvet cover.

Everyone in the room stopped. Amy lay motionless, next to Rex, who stood in silent horror. Her dark hair covered her like a curtain, she wasn’t moving.

Rex stood still, shocked. “A-Amy?” He stuttered. The other toys backed away. Buzz looked shook. He didn’t mean for that to happen…

Amy stirred. “R-Rex...? what happened…?” She murmured. Then it came back to her. “Are-are you okay?” she asked Rex, he looked taken aback. “A-Are you kidding? Y-y-you just got slapped! I-I should be asking you!” he said, still shaking after his outburst, his breathing still shallow, but his voice quieter, making sure his friend was alright. “No, you shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t.” She answered, while getting up, with deep concern for her friend. “Amy, you- you’re hurt!” Rex exclaimed. Amy touched her cheek were Buzz had hit her.

She could feel soft stuffing coming out of a small cut on her cheek, she gasped.

She turned to Buzz. “Why did you do that?” she asked softly, in shock. Buzz stammered. “I-I’m so sorry, Amy, I didn’t mean to hurt you…” he started. Amy then looked at him with a soft expression. “What about Rex?” the ragdoll replied. She spoke quietly, still dazed. Buzz gulped. “I thought it would…” “Would what?” “…I don’t know.”

Buzz moved closer to Rex. The dinosaur jerked back, still freaking out. Buzz put his hands up in peace. “Rex, I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to hit you. It was a foolish mistake.” Rex nodded slowly, understanding “I-I understand.” He still looked shaky. He whimpered. He felt terrible. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He mantra’d in his head. How could he have been so stupid? How could he… all thoughts and sounds pressed against him, squeezing his chest.

Amy turned to Rex. “Rex,” she whispered softly, “What’s wrong?” Rex stayed silent for a beat before speaking. Despite not really having a throat, his voice came out hoarse. “I’m g-going to be r-replaced, Amy, and Andy’s going to get a-a dinosaur w-w-who’s much better than me…” he rambled. He shook, fidgeting with his hands.

The other toys weren’t sure what to do. Rex always was a neurotic, but seeing him freak out like this saddened them.

Amy locked eyes with Rex, backing away from him far enough to give him space to breathe.

“Breathe,” Amy told him gently, “Deep breaths, and you’ll feel better, I promise.”

He took one shaky breath. Then he took another. And another. And another. He could feel air coming in and out of him a bit more normally now.

That was a start.

“Do you want me to talk to you alone? You’ll feel better if you talk it out.” Amy assured. Rex nodded.

ASSURANCE

Amy was walking around the room with Rex, trying to calm his nerves. The other toys had gone back to their own business, a tad confused, and more than a bit worried for their friend.

“W-what about your cut?” Rex asked, Amy dismissed it with a wave of her mitten-like hand, like having her face carved up with stuffing peeking out was the most normal thing. “Don’t worry, I’ll deal with it later, I need to help you first.” She said calmly, absently brushing her cheek. It felt weird, kind of numb, but she would fix it later. Then she added, “And you shouldn’t worry about being replaced, either.” She thought for a moment, calculating what to say next. Could she dare to ask why?

They walked in silence for a while before Amy broke it. “Rex, why are you so worried?” she asked softly, hoping she wasn’t going to upset him. Surprisingly, Rex replied better than she expected.

“Andy g-got me from the Museum…” he started shakily. “The toy company that I was owned by and the Museum had an agreement to sell toys there…” his gaze drifted away from the ragdoll, into the past.

“…I remember the children pointing at me, saying “Hey, look how small it’s arms are!” and ‘and “Heh, look at his dopey face” … They were always more interested in the scarierlooking toys… not me.” Rex trailed off.

“I learnt that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is supposed to be the most fearsome dinosaur –no, creature- to rule the earth.

There were posters in the gift shop where I lived, before Andy. Scary, big pictures of dinosaurs, roaring and growling, scaring everyone… They were respected. And children thought they were cool.

I wanted that. I wanted to be respected. But whenever I try, I become an idiot. I can barely roar. I know everyone in this room thinks I’m annoying, and I don’t blame them. And I don’t hate them for it.

I just know, one day, maybe even today, Andy’s going to get a newer, respectful dinosaur, and I’m going to be abandoned. Discarded. Because I can’t even do what I was made to do. to be scary.

I want to be scary, because I know that’s the only way people will like me. I was alone in that gift shop; no one would talk to me… they hated me for being myself. For not being what they expected me to be.” he paused, before laughing ruefully, sadly. Trying to keep it together, trying to keep from crying. He’d been needing to tell someone that for a long time. “I must be acting really pathetic, huh? And your p-probably bored… forget what I said…” Amy shook her head as if that was the silliest thing she’d ever heard. “No, you’re just talking to me because you’ve had no one to talk to. You shouldn’t pretend to be someone you’re not just to be loved or feared. That’s crazy. We all like you for being you.

You’re special to Andy. And even if he does get a new dinosaur, Andy will play with the both of you. It’s like Woody and Buzz, remember when you told me how much they hated each other at the start?” He nodded. After Amy had arrived to Andy’s room, Rex had felt responsible to tell her everything that had happened to him and his friends. “Well, you’re sure to have a friend in that new dinosaur, if Andy gets one.”

Rex wasn’t so sure. “But what if the new dinosaur is bad? Like… evil?” “Well then, we’ll just do what Woody did and throw him out of the window the window.” She said, smirking. Rex laughed.

PATCHED-UP.

The rest of the day had gone without error, for a room as chaotic as Andy’s. Amy now sat down on top of Andy’s desk as Rex tried to sew Amy back up. She had politely declined at first, but Rex had insisted. He wanted to help, but also, unknown to Amy, because he had nothing to do but worry otherwise otherwise. Also, he felt safer when he was with his friend.

Amy noted the small hollows beneath Rex’s eyes; from all the worrying, she presumed sadly. The poor thing…

She watched as he sewed her cheek up with a needle and a small piece of thread while Amy was seated on top of some building blocks so Rex could reach her. Rex was, surprisingly, really good at sewing. Probably because his fingers were small and nimble. Checking the stitches weren’t loose, he tied the thread off. you’d never know the cut had been there.

Rex remembered, with guilt, how Amy had got the cut in her cheek in the first place. “I’m sorry about your cut…” Rex apologized.

Amy sighed softly. “Well what could I have done? I couldn’t just let you get hit.” “But it’s my fault he tried to hit me in the first place! If I hadn’t’ve freaked out the way I did, if I hadn’t been so dramatic, you wouldn’t have gotten hit! It’s all my fault…” he looked like he’d let her down.

But he hadn’t. “You couldn’t have acted any other way. You were scared, you couldn’t control yourself. and I understand that. And I promise that if you ever feel like that again, I’ll help you. I don’t care how hurt I get; I’ll be able to sew myself back up afterwards.” She smirked.

Rex sighed. “But I was being dramatic! And needy… while I’m whining about my own life… you were cooped up in that attic…” “You were anxious; everyone is dramatic when they’re anxious.” “You’re not…” Rex trailed off. “You’re much braver than me.” He admitted. Amy sighed. But not out of annoyance. “Yes, you are.” Amy countered. “If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here. And it was brave of you to tell me why you were scared in the first place, it shows good character.” “… it shows good character to be a fraidy cat?” “Yep. When you’re scared, you become stronger by facing what scares. And I know you can face them, Rex.” Amy smiled at him. “What if I can’t?” “You can. And I’ll be right beside you if you need me, no matter what.” “T-thank you, Amy.” Rex stuttered, but grinning.

Well, if Amy thinks he could, he thought, maybe he can.

GLOWING.

Rex fiddled with his hands nervously in the remaining hour till Andy got home. Amy, Hamm, Woody, and Slinky tried to distract the dino with a game of cards.

“He’s coming!” Mr. Potato Head yelled, and the other toys ran back to their places. Amy helped Rex back onto the bed. The dinosaur in question had a pained expression on his face. And he whimpered, staring into space. Amy smiled sympathetically “You’re going to be fine, Rex, I promise.” She whispered reassuringly, before going limp as Andy burst into the room.

To Rex’s dismay, he was carrying a paper bag. Just like the one in his nightmare. Just like the one he’d came in years’ prior today. He felt sick. So this is it…Andy grinned and took the object out of the box, ripping it’s packaging. I’m doomed… Rex thought, he tried to focus on what Amy had said, but he couldn’t…

Rex wasn’t sure if he wanted to cry or laugh as Andy pulled out what he had bought.

It was a lamp. He had worked himself up. For a lamp. Its lampshade had a Jurassic landscape on it, with T-Rexes and Triceratopses and other dinosaurs on it.

Andy spotted Rex on the bed. His face lit up. “Look! It’s the most fearsome creature on the planet!” He grabbed Rex and a few other toys, and started playing.

This playtime, Rex was a ferocious, toy-eating carnivore, stomping across the saloon, eating all in sight. (Even cacti!) He had taken Amy hostage, and she screamed in his grasp, trying to swat him away with her soft cotton hands to no avail. “Help me! Help me please!” she screamed. Luckily, Woody and Buzz, (Ever the dynamic duo,) defeated Rex. Buzz had distracted him with his laser, and Rex followed it like a cat, entangling him in Woody’s lasso, (Slinky). Andy’s Mother then called him downstairs for dinner/tea.

As the toys sprung to life, happy about tonight’s playtime, Rex was undoubtedly the happiest. He grinned at Amy, who was beside him. “You were right.” He said, Amy beamed, “See? What did I tell you? Andy would never replace you.” Rex blanched. “Yeah, but why…?” “... Because who would?” Amy muttered to herself. She wasn’t sure if Rex heard, and she wasn’t quite sure why she had said it.

It was true that she was fond of Rex, but of course, not that fond. After all, he was a dinosaur, and she was a ragdoll, it would just be far too strange. And what if Andy gets another dinosaur... one with pretty scales…? Amy thought with worriment, before snapping out of it. Oh now I’m doing it! She mentally scolded herself, as she and Rex continued to converse.

That night, when Andy was getting ready for bed, the lamp was the only source of light. Silhouettes of dinosaurs patterned the walls with a warm yellowy glow. Rex watched the dinosaur shadows with amusement. Amy had been right. But say, if Andy ever did get a dinosaur, he or she, or they, for that matter, no matter how cool or scary they were, could never replace him. Also, he decided, if Andy did, it might not be so bad.

Especially if the other dinosaur was just as kind as Amy.

#the story of a toy #rex toy story #hamm #woody pride #buzz lightyear #slinky dog #toy story fanfiction #fanfiction #bo peep #mr. potato head #amy the ragdoll #toy story oc #oc

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thoughts-of-a-bibleophile · 3 years

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the merry-go-round of life

i have no idea what this is, but i’m tired of looking at it, so here you go.

context: i watched howl’s moving castle the other day, which is one of my favorite movies, and i wanted to somehow put steven and may into the flying scene (you know the one). i...have no art skills, so i thought that writing it out would be the next best thing? so this is a HCS HMC AU i guess, even though it’s only one scene

hopefully i captured even a fraction of the magic of the movie! (i definitely suggest listening to the merry go round of life while reading this, but you don’t have to!) also i apologize if there are errors - this is from my phone’s notes and i’ve read it over at least a dozen times to check for errors, but there might definitely be some in here still.

anyway - enjoy!

Even though she had grown up in just the town over, May always felt so small when walking amongst the towering buildings in Rustboro. It was easy to get lost in the chaos; she much preferred the simplicity of Petalburg over this, at least there she didn’t have to fight through crowds of people just to get to the store.

Why Lisia had insisted that she come visit during the first day of summer was a mystery to her. As much as she wanted to visit her friend, for it really had been months since she had seen her and she missed her terribly, Lisia should have known how much trouble visiting at such a time would cause.

Celebrations for the beginning of summer had just begun and things were busier than usual, making the streets even more crowded than normal. It was aggravating to get through, with everyone tightly packed together in the square like fish in a can; she knew she wouldn’t be able to make much headway through the crowds even if she wanted to. Instead, she ducked down a nearly empty alleyway that looked to connect to the street ahead that she needed to reach.

Gathering her skirts in hand, May hurried down the cobblestone steps, taking them two at a time. She really didn’t want to be late with how busy of a schedule Lisia already had.

The note in her hand reminded her that the bakery was the green roof next to the bank, which she could just see over the various chimneys crowding the back alley. She glanced back at the paper again to double check. Almost there now-

“Are you lost, little bird?” a voice asked above her.

She stopped in her tracks and glanced up. A pair of men in uniforms smiled down at her. They looked a bit older than her, one with a bushy mustache and one with wild brown hair that barely stayed under his cap.

“No, I’m fine, thank you,” she said quickly, attempting to step by them, only for the mustached one to match her step for step. His smile widened into a smirk.

“You sure? You shouldn’t be in a place like this with the festivities going on. Why not join us for a drink?”

“No, I’m fine-“

“Oh, come on, we don’t bite-“

“I really need to be going now,” she said as forcefully as she could, but she felt a slight tremor in her voice. She felt her cheeks burn as the men simply chuckled instead of stepping aside like she wanted them to. A voice that sounded suspiciously like her mother’s whispered that the alley really had been a bad idea and she really should have been smarter than this-

Just as the mustached man reached for her arm, a new voice appeared.

“There you are, sweetheart. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

An arm wrapped around her shoulders and she stiffened at the contact. May tried to keep her face neutral as the guards looked up in confusion at the newcomer next to her.

She looked up as well, wondering who on earth had come to her rescue. Was it a rescue really? Or were they just going to further derail her travels like these two?

A man with a shock of silver hair stood before her with a casual, easy smile on his face. Aside from his oddly colored hair, the oddest part of him was the brightly colored jacket hung over his shoulders, not spring-themed like those she had seen earlier in the day, but something timeless and classic and quite expensive. He seemed familiar, yet totally strange to her.

“H-Hey, who are you-?” the brown-haired guard asked, blinking as if the man had just appeared out of thin air beside May. “We were in the middle of something, pal-“

“Were you? I thought you were leaving now?” The stranger’s voice was light and teasing, but there was mirth as well, as if he found this whole situation quite amusing.

She was about to ask him what on earth was so funny when she felt the hand on her shoulder move and then the guards themselves moved. Not of their own volition if their befuddled expressions and outcries were any indication.

They marched off in the opposite direction of the alleyway, leaving just May and the strange man with the silver hair. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Sorry about that. They’re not that bad, really, so try not to hold it against them,” he said. She cast a skeptical look up at him. “But I think it would be safer if we walked together. Where to? Consider me your escort for this afternoon.” He turned the full force of his gaze on her.

His eyes were of the clearest silver, like the sparkle of a coin on a sunny day. She was a bit stunned at how pretty they were and at how pretty he was, especially when he turned his full attention to her.

“The bakery, just a few streets over,” she managed to say, struck by the intensity of his gaze even from a simple look.

“The bakery it is,” he said with a smile, turning back to the alley in front of them. He placed her hand on his arm and then they began to walk.

For the first few moments, May was at war with herself. No matter how pretty this man was, there was no reason to trust him and walk with him in this alleyway! On the other hand, there was a part of her that did trust him, though for what reason she did not know. That part of her knew that walking with him and being on his arm in the busy streets of Rustboro was the safest bet for her.

What an interesting situation.

She began to relax at the sight of the end of the alleyway, the crowd’s noise sounding louder and louder with each step. She wondered if he would accompany her through that as well-

The skittering of claws against stone reached her ears and she looked behind her to see clawed, shapeless figures appearing from out of the stone itself. A chill wound its way down her spine and she felt his arm tense at the noise.

“We need to make a detour,” the stranger at her side said, his voice still calm despite the things after them.

He tugged her down another alley, their pace brisker now. She barely kept up with his long strides.

“Where are we-“ she began to ask, only to hear the same sound of claws once more.

Ahead of them, the same forms from before appeared, dark and shapeless creatures that sent fear through her.

“Hang on,” is all he said.

“Hang on to what-?” she demanded before he grabbed her around the waist and tugged her close. A second later, her feet left the ground, and she heard the crash of claws below her.

Her heart was in her throat as they soared into the air. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

The towering buildings that had looked so tall and fearsome before were now as small as a child’s toys before her. The sea on the edge of the city sparkled in the sun and the forests stood tall in the south. There was nothing beneath her shoes, no cobblestones or brick steps, just empty air. The wind fluttered her skirt and ruffled her bangs, as if she were standing atop a high balcony.

Magic, her mind thought instant. She had suspected as much with the officers, but this was absolute proof. Or she was dreaming and would wake up back at home, like this never happened. She wasn’t sure which she would prefer.

“Now, just straighten your legs and start walking,” he said at her side, as if walking on air was as easy as breathing. Perhaps it was for someone like him.

He took her hands as her legs straightened to stand on empty air. She took a shaky step forward, her hands gripping his tightly, as if that would somehow help if the magic failed and they started to fall.

“There we go,” he said quietly and she could hear the smile in his voice.

She took another step forward. The another. It really was as easy as walking on the ground.

May felt a smile rise to her lips at the sheer wonder of it all. Even if this was a dream, if the man at her side and this magic was just a vision conjured up by her subconscious, at least it had an incredible view.

“You are a natural,” he said softly, his voice not full of surprise like she expected but with pride, as if he had expected her to master this somehow. Strange.

She felt herself flush from the praise but said nothing, lest she lose focus on walking.

The bakery was so close yet so far. The crowd’s noise was so loud, yet so far, as if they had traveled even farther into the air and away from the ordinary people below living ordinary lives. Like she had once been. It was as if this man had trapped them in a bubble where time and distance did not matter.

She almost felt disappointed when they reached the bakery’s green roof, even though every sane part of her screamed in relief.

Moments later, he gently let go of one of her hands to let her step carefully onto the balcony of the bakery. He didn’t let go of her other hand until she was safely off of the railing.

He then captured her gaze with his, steady and warm. “I’m going to draw them away, but stay inside for a bit, just to be safe, alright?”

The warmth in his eyes made everything in her feel lighter, as if she were still floating on air. She couldn’t stop smiling. “Okay.”

“That’s my girl,” he said with a grin. With a flourish of his arm, his form dropped through the air like a stone and she felt herself rush to the railing on instinct to check that he was alright, even despite flying through the air with him just moments before.

Her ears searched the ground below to try and find his form in the crowds below. But there was nothing there. Just the crowds of ordinary, non-flying, non-silver-haired people celebrating the first day of summer, none the wiser that two people had quite literally flew through the air just above their heads. She glanced up at the clear blue sky, wondering if she really had just dreamed it up somehow, but then something caught her eye.

In the distance, a bird’s wings flashed, glinting silver as it careened toward the sea.

and that was it! do i have any of this au planned besides this scene? no. well, maybe the dramatic hair dyeing scene and the flower field scene, but besides that, i have nothing else about this au figured out. i guess steven is a bird? again...i didn’t really flesh this au out too much. i just....really wanted to capture this scene in some way.

i also wanted to mention that i will be doing hoennchampionshipping week 2021! (and i already have some fics prepared for it, unlike last time), so stay tuned for that!

i hope you all are having a lovely day and thank you so much for reading this little drabble!

#hoennchampionshipping #howl's moving castle #howl's moving castle au #my writing

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birdybirdnerd · 4 years

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Okay okay I'm at pepboys waiting for a tire rotation to finish being done and I came across this post by @titanfalling and was filled with the sudden undeniable urge to write a ficlet so bare with me as I sob all over my shitty phone keyboard bc Daisy and Jon are Friends, Okay?

Also I can't figure out how to add a read more on mobile so sorry, I'll fix it later

---

All they manage to reach in the Buried is their fingertips, for the longest time.

Jon had followed Daisy's voice, Looked for her even as he strained to keep himself sane, kept part of himself anchored in the surface world through the pieces of himself he left behind. But even once he found her, it was too late for anything more than reaching, grasping, finally managing to link nothing but their little fingers. Jon would've laughed if he had room enough to take a full breath.

They stayed that way, unable to see each other, not wanting to risk speaking too much lest they fill their lungs with the cursed dirt. But that one point of contact, they each held like a lifeline. They were trapped here, and eternity is a very long time. Neither pretended it was much, but it was enough, God, it would have to be enough.

When they were out, before everything fell apart, they found themselves linking fingers together occasionally. It was too little to be properly called hand-holding, but just enough to keep each other grounded. When everything became too much; when the statements and the mystery clawed at Jon's mind, when the feeling of choking down dirt and crushing pressure laid heavily on Daisy's shoulders, when the nightmares had them both jumping at shadows even during the brightest days- they had each other. No judgement, no animosity. I'm here, it said. Just a tiny point of contact, familiar, grounding. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere. Stay with me.

At some point, days before the world ends, neither of them know what's coming. It's all become too much. That little point of contact is still there, still helps, but one night Jon gives in and drinks a little too much and Daisy was keeping him company in his office while he did so and he might have convinced her to indulge a little as well, and no one knows who suggested it first but they stumble their way to some out of the way little shop down the street and wake up with matching magnolia branches wrapped around their little fingers.

Jon is a bit disgruntled at first, but he can admit the stylized flowers are rather lovely. It's Daisy that tells him, quiet-like, their meaning, and all at once Jon's heart breaks again and again and they fall into each other, holding on, linking their fingers to ground each other even though the skin is still raw and freshly-inked.

And then it's the end of the world all over again, and Jon and Martin are on the run and Jon can't stop Seeing everything, even though it hurts, it all hurts so much his brain is splitting apart and his eyes burn with the need to Know, and-

And they've made their way back to London, where Basira called them in a panic, voice cutting in and out on the phone lines that are about to fall completely. They meet up with her, bleeding, terrified, and Jon can see the taint of the Hunt about her and the touch of Beholding and he thinks Mine and that's a worry for another day because she's telling them something important, saying that she's being tracked and-

And a soul-wrenching growl pulls them out of their conversation, startling them into awareness. A great, towering monster looms over them, slavering jaws dripping red-tinted spit, joints all wrong, teeth like serrated knives and yellow eyes slitted. And Basira and Martin shout, retreat, pull at Jon's arm because it's the Hunt, it's a Hunter Jon we need to run but Jon can See and he knows this is probably suicide but the magnolia on his pinky finger burns for the first time in months.

He steps forward towards the beast, heedless of his friend and his love's cries. He raised his hand towards the beast, who snarls at him and slashes. It's claws catch his jacket, but- he didn't move. It could have eviscerated him. It was holding back, for some reason it didn't know, if the confusion in its sickly yellow eyes was any indication. But Jon Knows, and he reaches out towards one great paw.

"Daisy," he murmurs, and links his little finger with hers. He can't see the mark through the shaggy fur and claws, but he Knows it's there. No, he just knows. It anchors them together, he can feel the surety of it thrumming through him even though so much is still unknown. He knows this.

She looks back up at him, and- there she is.

"Jon," she chokes, blinking back tears. "Jon."

"It's okay, Daisy," he says, pulling her into a hug. Basira and Martin cry out again behind him, for a different reason, and he feels their arms join his in encircling Daisy in warmth and love and safety.

"I'm here."

#personal #the magnus archives #tma

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gwoongi · 5 years

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𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗅𝖺𝗌𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝗎𝗌 ✰ taehyung (1)

𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗅𝖺𝗌𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝗎𝗌 kim taehyung / reader genre: zombie apocalypse au words: 6793

You just wanted humanity to survive.

warnings: violence, swearing, sexual content, gore and blood, death, taboo themes, drug and alcohol use

a/n: hi!! this has been in the works for literally. a year. maybe even longer. it has caused me so much pain and stress + im so happy to be putting her out into the world!!!!! thank you for all your endless support and i hope u all like this fic!!!!!!! :D ((it is a revised version of my older “the last of us” fic on cosykims!))

[ Moodboard || Playlist ]

01. denver ↝ 02. holiday with me ↝ 03. sad forever ↝ 04. surely ↝ 05. scorpion ↝ 06. shakespeare

“...city centre is now closed until further notice, after a bomb was detected near the subway station at 3:45pm. Reports say that the bomb was not a hoax, and was indeed planted there by foreign intel…”

“After three major bomb alerts in cities across the country, the senator has released a statement saying the following: Relations with foreign powers are continuing to get worse. Bombs are being planted around our country, and the threat of nuclear war is among us. Currently there are no dramatic changes, but our channel will keep everybody within the area notified.”

“...I repeat, this is not a drill. North Korea have finally declared nuclear war on the western hemisphere, challenging other powers to ready their weapons and start to fight. Curfew is now under way, and everybody must report to nearby shelters in the case of an emergency. May God be with you all.”

“...thanks, Janet. What we are seeing here is the aftermath of what appears to be catastrophic damage done by a foreign bomb in New York City. Thousands of people are suspected to be dead and bombs are still being detected in the radar. This is no longer a fantasy - this is the reality of our country. God Bless America.”

“...months after the fighting has ceased across the Globe, the Government have set up control areas to prevent the possibility of an infection, of which was caused by the toxic chemicals of the bombs dropped just three months ago. Citizens are to be evacuated within three miles of controlled areas and gas masks are being supplied to everybody South of Nebraska….”

“...what appears to be a virus has spread throughout controlled quarantines this evening. Reports from the state suggest that the word ‘zombie’ might fit the description of this virus. This is not a joke, I repeat, we are dealing with a nationwide crisis here. Everybody is to stay within their homes.”

“...the world is ending….hundreds and thousands of people are expected to fall to the virus caused by the aftermath of war...flesh-eating zombies….may God be with us all….oh God...oh God!”

Three Years In 01:12am.

Contrary to popular belief, there were many good things about the apocalypse. One, you wagered, was the fact that there was barely any pollution in the air; in fact, on an evening, you could see the whole galaxy without a telescope, breathing in the life of speckles of white, shooting ivories and the smile of a lonely moon. Two, there were no official rules to life. Unlike life before, no human is illegal, now. Border control is non-existent, and immigration and tax and how much money you’re going to make come payday is no longer important to anybody still alive. And three, if you were lucky, it was always silent.

Before, you used to sneer at silence. The way it mocked you, and humiliated you after a high-school presentation, or after the punchline of a joke. The way the silence slowly picked at your bones and flesh in the attic bedroom of your grandparents’ bungalow in the northern part of the city, secluded in mountains and barren trees; the silence laughing at the way you stared out that small box window, praying for a miracle to make noise.

But now, silence is your new best friend. Silence indicates that nothing is near, and danger is less likely. It heightens every sense, and keeps you awake at night. Against any loyal survivor or camp-member, you valued silence as the number one ally.

Sniffing once, you caught your nose running, stepping over a large pile of rubble that had fallen from the roof of the warehouse you were currently based in. Careful to not awaken any of your fellow campers, you made your way towards the large wire fence, pulling a cable tie around the sliced wire to tie it together - an unpractical reinforcement, although quieter than chains. And as designated leader of the camp, you admit that it’s hard to keep everybody sane and grounded. Safety was of paramount importance, but you can’t fake it. You can’t lie to your campers by saying everything is safe. Because nothing is safe anymore.

Scraping scrap metal across the tarmac, the distant sound of boots made you glance up, noticing the familiar scuff of red leather and you turned away, not having to look up to know it’s the new guy, Kim Taehyung.

“Need any help?” his voice called across the loud silence, his fingers toying with a loose strand of polyester attached to his jacket.

“I’ve got it, thanks,” you replied, fiddling still with the ties around the looped chain.

Taehyung moved forward anyway, indifferent about the tense tone of your voice. He missed the hint entirely, coming closer when all you want is for him to go away. “It doesn’t look like you’ve got it. Here, I’ll hold the fence.”

You flinched when he appeared by your side, your face meeting his helpful gaze with a sharp glare. Regardless, you sighed loudly and relaxed, letting him hold the fence in place as you wrapped around the cable tie, clamping it closed before moving to the next hole created by cutters.

“Are you always this pushy?” you asked, avoiding his stare as you worked to close all the possible entrances (and exits).

“I just wanted to help,” Taehyung confessed quietly. “I felt pointless in there, not falling asleep. Plus, Jiyong snores. I wanted some peace and quiet.”

At that, you scoffed and smile. “Well, I can believe that. He’s always been a snorer, ever since high-school.”

Taehyung made a noise of acknowledgement, finally accepting defeat and crouching quietly beside you, wordless but inquisitive. It had only been three days since he joined the camp by chance; he was one of the lucky ones who approached your camp and made it inside. A law you lived by, inside your cluttered and hazy and scared brain, was that you never accepted outsiders into the camp. Sticking by friends you’ve known and trusted for years seemed safer than blindly trusting someone you had never met before. But, as Seunghyun pointed the sniper rifle at his tuft of brown hair hanging on his forehead, Yena had bounced down from the watch-tower with wide eyes - “he needs a Doctor, Y/N. He’s bleeding from his knee. We have the supplies, we can save his life.”

You just wanted humanity to survive.

And so the gates opened and he lay down on a medical bed inside the warehouse, and Yena and Jisoo helped patch up his wounds. Now, here he is; lingering in the shadows of the warehouse, limping across the length of the grounds, begging for jobs to keep himself occupied.

“You work a lot,” Taehyung noted. “I never see you sleep at night. Insomnia?”

“One person always stays on guard during the night,” you explain, tugging at the wire to make sure it holds. “I volunteer because there’s always something that needs to be done around here. If you think you’re safe, you’re wrong. Nobody else wants to do it, so I will. Just to keep myself busy, mainly.”

Taehyung nodded. “I get that. Before I came here, I just walked. I never stopped walking from where I was, constantly looking for somewhere safe to go.”

“Ain’t that the way,” you replied. With nothing left to do with the fence, you eventually turned to look at him, staring at his face outlined by the dim gas-lighter by the door to the warehouse. “You been on your own for a while?”

“No,” he answered, hesitantly. “I was with my sister when the virus first broke out. We were both at NYU. We got separated in the manic and I joined a small group of science students on their way to find a cure. Clearly, that didn’t work out. I figured it was safer on my own, you know? I had no idea where she went. So, I walked.”

“And your leg?” you asked, looking at his knee, still wrapped in soaked bandages. “You got hurt pretty bad, huh? Biter get you?”

“Unfortunately not. I got jumped by a couple bandits on my way here. I got away when a few walkers came by, but barely escaped. Then, I came here.”

You stood up as he spoke, him following your every move like a mirror. “‘Walkers.’ You can tell you’re from New York.”

Moving away from Taehyung, your feet take you to the mid-height fence near the drop towards the forest, a view overlooking the tops of tall trees, a spiralling path faded by fog and the familiar outline of a deserted city near the horizon. Kicking the fence gently, it stays in place, requiring no fortifications or attention. Nothing could climb the steep drop beneath it. Resting your elbows on the beach wood of the fence, you rest your weight and stare towards the city, analysing the corners of each building, jagged lines like a maths puzzle.

“While I was getting patched up,” Taehyung began, after a long moment of serene silence, “Jisoo told me that you guys go out on trips, hunts in cities. How many have you covered?”

“Only one,” you replied, nodding in the direction of the city in front of you. “That’s Denver. It’s so large that we barely covered a third of it in the two years we’ve been here. We planned to keep moving, but we had some...complications along the way. We got trapped up here. Every week we send out a group to scavenge the cities, find whatever we can to prepare us for travels. And last week, Jiyong’s pick-up truck ran out of gas for good, so anything we can find to help get that back and running would be great.”

Taehyung nodded with understanding, picking at the dry skin around his bitten-down fingernails. “I hear it’s in a few days. Shouldn’t you be asleep, resting for it?”

“I can’t sleep,” you said quietly. “Not anymore. And it’s like I said, there’s always shit that needs to be done. The drive to the city is around half hour, I can catch some z’s on the way there and between shifts. Why so curious, anyway? You coming with us, or something?”

He shrugged. “Can I?”

“Have you got anything better to do?” you retort, and he smiles slightly, looking down. “I hear you’re a good runner. We could use the extra legs and arms. If your knee’s up to it, course.”

Gratefully, he nodded with acceptance. “Come to think of it, your group is quite small. Has it always been this selective?”

As the words left his lips, Taehyung felt himself regret that sentence, noticing the way you tensed next to him, hands pausing in their movement of toying a blade of grass that hugged the fence post.

“I’m sorry. That was rude-”

“There were others,” you replied tensely, your demeanour changed instantly. “But like all other groups, we lost people along the way. Good people. Kind and loving people. In a world where life is so short, I can’t afford to lose anybody else.”

You clapped his shoulder roughly, “you’re new, Taehyung, and I don't expect you to understand. But we’re a family here, and the safety of the group is essential. You’re gonna lose people along the way but…”

Your voice trailed off, and Taehyung looked up. He got it. You didn’t have to continue speaking for him to put the pieces together.

Two Days Later. 08:19am.

The lively sound of a rumbling engine stirred Taehyung awake, the noise travelling from the square all the way to the South-Wing, painted in yellow as ‘Zone S’. S for sleep, or S for safety, Taehyung couldn’t quite decipher.

Sitting on the rectangle straw-sheet, he slipped on his socks and signature ruby leather boots, carrying his jacket over his arms as he left the zone and moved towards the square, where the sun bled out onto the dusty tarmac, a glimmer of glittering light causing him to squint as he crossed the width of the kitchen. He smiled at Yena, the youngest in the group, only eighteen amongst middle-aged outcasts, and passed her at the table, ignoring her wavering stare.

“Taehyung. Good morning.”

He forced himself to smile over at Taekwoon, only slightly intimidated by the size of his muscles behind a grey sleeved tee, and the way he effortlessly lifted a duffel bag filled with weapons into the trunk of the Subaru. Taekwoon looked over gently, in an effort not to afraid the newbie, and then he shut the boot of the car and approached him.

“You coming on our trip today?” he asked, and Taehyung nodded.

“Did you clear it with Y/N?”

“Yes,” he replied surely. “She invited me.”

Taekwoon smiled mockingly, laughing out of his nose. “Right. Sure she did.”

Taehyung blinked, unfamiliar. “Where is Y/N? Isn’t she coming with us?”

“Yeah. Protocol around here is similar to certain armies,” Taekwoon explained lamely. “The leader always helps out on missions. Hey, she’s nothing like that old guy out of Wonder Woman, I’ll tell you that.”

“Y/N is the leader?” Taehyung asked dumbly.

Taekwoon turned then, resting a hand upon the hot black exterior of the car. “Does that shock you?”

“Kinda. She looks so…”

He didn’t continue, but Taekwoon nodded in understanding. “We get it. But without her, none of us would be here. I couldn’t think of anyone better leading us. Well, I mean, I’d proper love a Rick Grimes around here, but you can’t have everything. Jiyong and Seunghyun are technically leaders, too, but we just say Y/N is to deprive them the satisfaction of feeling powerful.”

From behind him, the short sound of footsteps made Taehyung turn, meeting your gaze halfway as you briskly passed him, cheeks clammy, freckles on display. He’d never noticed them before. At your entry, the group of hunters gathered around the bonnet of the car as you spread a map down on it with a short slap, a dying red Sharpie in your hand, circling the next part of the city.

“Last week we went to this section, so try and focus on these areas today,” you explained, waiting for Taehyung to shift into a position where he could see the map carefully. “Denver was one of the worst hit cities, so we could either be lucky and find bodies, or unlucky and find biters. Either way, try and avoid making sound. We have the radios and walkies in-case we get into any sort of trouble. If we lose signal, meet at the car before sunset. Remember - don’t risk your life if one of us doesn’t arrive on time. Give it five minutes after the sun begins to disappear, and if we’re not here, go on ahead. We can’t sacrifice our supplies for the sake of one man. It’s harsh, and we go through this every time, but I’m making it clear to the fresh meat.”

Everybody, minus Taehyung and his bewildered expression, nodded with understanding, a quiet murmur overpowering the groan of the dead hanging in the shadows of the forest surrounding the warehouse.

“Is there anything anybody wants to ask for before we head onto the road?” Jiyong asked, his voice in the same usual volume- quieter than a shout, slightly louder than a whisper.

“Gas is a priority,” Taehyung suggested, remembering the conversation about the useless pick-up truck sitting in the back near the barrens.

Taekwoon nodded, “we need gas for the truck, and in-case our getaway vehicle runs out unexpectedly. We’re on our last few drops.”

“The usual, I’d expect. Food is obvious, water, clean water. Clothes, or batteries would be great, too. Never skip over a store because it looks empty,” Doyoung, Yena’s brother and the best shooter within the group aside from Seunghyun, said, looking at Taehyung all the while. “Pharmacy's look emptied, but there’s always the office near the back that’s filled with extra medicine. The keys are usually on a staff member who’s lurking or dead. You have materials that can pick the lock.”

“How do you know that for sure?” Taehyung asked, meanwhile the rest of the group readied the truck. You stayed near Taehyung, eager to hear what he had to say.

“I used to work at my Dad’s pharmacy before shit hit the fan,” Doyoung shrugged. “I know my way around a pharmacy, is all.”

Having little else to do, Taehyung simply nodded and stood still, waiting for the group to finish setting up the car, with Taekwoon riding his motorcycle near the front like a Police escort.

“Ready?” you asked, stopping by his side as the group hollered for everybody to get inside. Yena hurried out towards the gate, hanging by the loose chain ready to open it up. Taehyung sucked in a breath quietly, and looked at you with as much optimism as he could. It came out falsely, but you appreciated his efforts.

“Not really. Will I ever be?”

You didn’t know how to answer that. No response was good.

The city was unusually quiet.

Beside you, in the back of the car, Taehyung stared silently at the scenery as it rolled past, just as the car crossed into the city’s territory. Immediately, he could see the stark contrast between the wilderness and the madness; a concrete jungle, overpowered by lush green and forest ferns, weeds that turreted as high as traffic lights snaking up the drains of apartment complexes, tufts of cloth dancing in the breeze. Despite the damage from nuclear destruction, Taehyung was surprised that nature could take over so quickly. He stared in silence at the sight of rusted vehicles abandoned in the streets, decorated with blood red graffiti, the walls of buildings reading “DEAD INSIDE” or “KEEP OUT”, neither better than the other. As the car crossed through an intersection, down one of the streets, water had eroded the roads; murky green water bouncing off the heavy sunlight creating patterns on the brickwork, faded and dressed in dark ivy.

“Reminds me of Chernobyl,” Taehyung commented on the way there.

As the car pulled up in a relatively deserted section of the city, Jiyong switched off the gas and hopped out instantly, wasting zero time. Taehyung clambered out afterwards, holding open the door as you climbed out after him, nodding as a thank-you, already familiarising yourself with the silence.

Taekwoon began to hand out weapons from the duffel bag in the boot as you stared in all directions, analysing pathways and gaps between buildings. Craning upwards, the canopy of unstable concrete, the decaying body of two large towers collided together, made you feel uneasy, and you turned back towards the group, gladly taking a pistol and extra ammunition.

“Remember the rules,” you reminded. “Stay in your partners. Taekwoon and Doyoung, go North. Jiyong, Seunghyun, go West. Jisoo, you’re okay to go South, yes? I’ll take the newbie with me East.”

Jisoo nodded, loading her gun. “I don’t need a man to slow me down.”

“Just be careful,” you warned, happy to see her confident going alone. Taehyung shifted from foot to foot, shakily taking a pistol from the bottom of the bag and following behind you as you moved towards the East direction, towards the fallen ruins of Denver city.

After some minutes of silence, Taehyung spoke up: “where are we going?”

“Further into the city,” you replied, not missing a beat. “Most of the stores close to the square have been checked already. But the ones further in the city are more likely to stay in tact. Nobody comes in here unless they want to die. Thankfully, it seems quiet today.”

“We got lucky, then,” he decided.

“I hope you’re right.”

A few more minutes in, and Taehyung felt himself cower at the sight of more skyscrapers leaning together, debris falling from the sky and landing in tufts near his feet. He ignored the stained blood from feet as he crossed a gravel pathway, near a sectioned off waterpool barricaded by old cars. Distracting himself, Taehyung invested his attention towards yourself, watching cautiously as you fiddled with buttons on the small radio you picked up along the way.

“Should you really be using that out in the open?”

You paused, scoffing slightly. “I know what I’m doing.”

“I believe you, but, that’s making noise.”

“What about it?”

Taehyung narrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Noise attracts walkers.”

With a final sigh, you turned to him over your shoulder. “You’re going to attract ‘walkers’ in a minute. Just...keep your voice down, yeah? The radio is our only way to communicate with those outside our group. It’s either this, or walking straight into death. You want that?”

“Obviously not,” he replied.

Opting to keep you happy, Taehyung didn’t say anything else. Instead, he followed your heels closely, muttering soft thanks when you lifted up a beam for him to duck under, or pointed out a hole of muddy water that was probably contaminated. In his ears, he listened for the sound of something - anything - to come through on the radio, when a voice cut through the radio static.

“...nothing left. I’m leaving the city, with as many people as I can. We have to leave people behind, but...they’re in no position to travel. Alby is sick, and Jaena’s leg is infected. We don’t have much time left…”

Taehyung moved closer to you, and you positioned the radio so he could hear.

“There’s nothing left for anybody in City Ten. Bandits and hunters come to scavenge stores but there’s nothing we can do about it. We gathered all the medical supplies in our store room in Block 18. Fuck, I don’t know what building we are in, but we can see the large building that towers over all others from our window. Tommy came in saying he has everything ready for us to go. We’re heading North, towards Washington. Some survivors said there was a group of student scientists there with a bunch of NASA officials, working on a cure. They’re calling Washington the safe zone, or something, I can’t remember. Denver is empty.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be here,” Taehyung said in a low voice, and you looked at him briefly before looking back at the radio, as if it would do something visual.

The voice continued breathily: “If you’re still in the city...if anybody even still listens to me, you need to get out. You need to head to-” she paused over the line. “Fuck, they’re here. I hear them.” Her voice got quieter, breathier, like a whisper. You decided to continue on foot next to Taehyung, waiting for her voice to come back through the line. For what felt like eternity, she made no response.

Taehyung heaved himself up over an abandoned car, extending a hand down to you to help pull you up. Climbing up after him, you snatched your hand away when you realised he was still holding onto you, brushing your hand on your jeans and jumping down from the car back onto the floor.

“Hey, Y/N, how about we head over--”

Abruptly, the woman’s voice cut back in through the silence. “Oh fuck! Oh my god, they k-killed him. They killed him, oh my God, they’re coming back for me, stop! Leave me alone!”

Her screams were screeching, loud enough to shatter glass. Taehyung immediately fumbled for the volume, hissing when the radio continued to scream out into the silence of the city. As quickly as her screams became deafening, they became deaf, fallen silent, only static replacing her noises. As if overcome with fear, you toss the radio to the side, causing it to smash into pieces.

“What are you doing?” Taehyung exclaimed suddenly.

“I don’t wanna hear that,” you replied, shaking your head furiously. “Come on, let’s keep going. We’ve already wasted time listening.”

“She’s in trouble,” Taehyung continued, nonetheless following you. “We could try and find her, and help her.”

You smiled bitterly, hiking towards the nearest convenience store at the ground of a large high-rise building, slanted and glass-covered. “Taehyung, you’re sweet. Really, and I so like that about you. You’re a good asset to the team, and I want to keep it that way. But, we can’t afford to save her. By the sounds of things, she didn’t make it.”

“You don’t know that.”

Pausing to observe a blood-covered metal bat rolling back and forth by the open door to the store, you crouch to pick it up and swing it back and forth. “You’re right, I don’t. But I care more about our survival than hers.”

Behind you, he scoffed and shook his head. “You’re heartless.”

“No, I’m realistic,” you counter, holding the door open for him and handing him the metal bat. He caught it with a breath of air. “Look, I don’t want to argue with you about it. We can discuss it back at camp. For now, we have to look in the area and find somewhere to scavenge. This’ll do for the moment. Take the chemist and the clothes, I’ll scan the aisles for food if there is any. If you see bottled water, please get some.”

Taehyung reluctantly sighed, following you through the door and flinching when his boots crunched shards of broken glass on the floor. Shuffling into place, Taehyung scanned the room with a somber expression; the shelves near the door had been stripped clean, with only crumbs and stains marking the off-white colours, faded neons screaming nursery rhymes as he approached the first aisle. To his delight, or more so relief, he noticed food still on the shelves towards the back of the store, and he moved his gaze towards the right side of the store, where a hanging light, swinging to and fro with a daunting creak, read “Clothing”, where a neon should have bled out into cyans and magentas.

“Take half an hour?” you suggested, tossing him a spare flashlight from your backpack. “Meet back here if you can’t find anything useful. Take what we need, not what you want. I mean, clothing is preference, but- you know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” he replied, sounding almost indifferent. “I know. Be careful.”

To that, you smiled. “You too.”

Waiting until Taehyung had shuffled into the shadows of the clothes department, somewhat near to the flickering blue glow of the chemist desk, you gulped and retreated towards the far shelf, crouching to pack in a can of beans and some soup, close to expiry but good enough to salvage. By the end of the search, your bag was near enough filled to the brim; you had plenty of food, and lighters to aid Jiyong’s bad smoking habit, alongside a pack of cigarettes you found at the back of the shelf next to some ammunition and a discarded wallet. A pack of batteries lay like a ripe cherry in a bunch of rotten ones, and you barely wedged it into the front pocket of your bag. Feeling successful, you swung the backpack onto your shoulders and rose from your crouch behind the shelves.

Poking your head over the stacks, the sound of Taehyung dragging clothes across the rails puts your mind at ease, distracting you from the low hum of the undead, which, as if it were possible, seemed to get louder and louder. Probably paranoia, you guessed, minding your own business as you approached the counter looking into the bakery. You stared sadly at the moulded breads and pastries, eyeing them with a new hunger. If you remembered hard enough, you could remember visiting a store just like this one and buying fish at the market, and then buying a custard cake at the bakery with your college friends.

At that thought, you looked away, leaning over the counter to eye the floor, messed with flour and footprints dotted with red shuffling towards the kitchen, where silence screamed out. You took a guess that the red wasn’t your ordinary jam, and you gulped, sadly imagining who the unlucky victim was. Shrugging off those thoughts, you prepared to pick yourself back up onto your feet when a loud shuffle made you freeze in all movement.

Please be Taehyung.

Turning around slowly, you held your breath calmly, facing the store. As you turned to look to your left, the sight of a biter hovering near the glass doorway to the side-store made a chill run up the length of your body. You did nothing. It simply stared.

Perhaps if you moved slowly, it wouldn’t see you. Albeit wishful thinking, it seemed better than nothing at this point. It stood there dauntingly, shaking from side to side with a tremor, lips torn apart and skin ripped, maggots clinging to the rotten flesh. It let out a snarl, teeth curling and stirring creamy foam out of its mouth, fingers curled like dinosaur claws. As it waited, you turned fully, hands spread flat on the counter of the desk, observing all possible exits.

There was the safe route; towards Taehyung where he could help you take out the biter coming after you. There was the risky route; straight back towards the door, where noise would attract both the biter and Taehyung anyway. Or there was the stupid route; towards the biter, ready for attack.

Thankfully, you’d seen zombie movies enough times to know that running towards the biter almost always got you killed. Instead, you moved slowly, almost unmoving entirely. The biter stayed in place, biting air, snarling at the wind. Walking as quietly as you could, you edged towards the clothing section to find Taehyung, already somewhat comforted by the continuous sound of him dragging hangers across the rails. Every step was taken without breath; afraid that even blinking would send it into a frenzy, silence was of new paramount importance.

Inching further towards Taehyung, you flinched violently when the biter growled loudly, making enough noise to pull Taehyung’s head out of the clothing racks, bag practically stuff with clothes he basically didn’t really need. When the noise was followed by silence, he gripped his bat handle tighter and dropped his backpack to the tiles with a soft thud. Taehyung moved slowly towards the open archway separating the clothes to the foods, taking his time looking at the way the lights flickered, and the sound of the wind getting caught in the tiny cracks in the window-panes.

“Y/N?” he called, unaware. His grip tightened on the bat when nothing responded, only a murmur, a groan that sounded guttural. “Y/N?”

Approaching the arch, he turned into the main foyer of the store and froze in place when he saw you; standing like a statue by the counter, facing him with eyes wide. Without saying words, he seemed to know what to do - he looked back and forth between yourself and the biter, staring at the way it swayed from side to side, occasionally jolting as if having a seizure. Looking back at you, he paused when you held your hands in front of you, as if warning him to stay away.

“Don’t move,” you mouthed, afraid of a whisper being too loud.

He nodded, although you barely caught it. “What do we do?” he mouthed back.

Catching your breath quietly, you began to move slowly towards him, dragging your feet across the tiles wiped with tomato coloured red. Taehyung held out his hands invitingly, bat still pointed outwards, shaking slightly. He couldn’t pinpoint whether it was nerves, or fear, but either one drove his hands further outwards, taking small steps of his own towards you, quiet in an effort to not distract unwanted attention.

“That’s it,” he whispered, the smallest of whispers, waving his hands slowly in circles. “Slowly…”

The taste of blood swam through your mouth as your teeth sank down onto the inside of your lip, hands shaking violently as you steadily stepped towards your partner. Closer than breath, he was steps away, when your foot came down on shards of cloudy glass.

It ripped through the silence like a cough in Church.

The biter jolted with a high-pitched scream, too loud for you to turn around to check its expression. Taehyung stared over your shoulder at the way it broke out of a trance, screeching loudly at the sight of sounds. Time was running out; Taehyung yelled your name loudly, causing you to hurry towards him to grab his hand extended outward. As you skidded past his legs, his voice rang in your ears, lips brushing your hair: “Outside! Now!”

Grabbing his bag discarded on the floor, Taehyung swung it over his shoulders as you hurried ahead, ducking through a broken window. With impatience, Taehyung pushed you out, hands on your upper-back thigh, cradling you as you jumped out the hole and onto the road. He barely made it out, tugging at the thin material of your sleeve and dragging you out into the dust on the road. From behind both of you, the doors separating the biter and the store smashed open, alerting at least a dozen others lingering nearby in the dusty shadows.

They were newly infected, still grasping on to whatever shreds of humanity they had left. Running fast, screams loud, hands still rotting the flesh away; the biters ran from behind you down the road, screaming with every step, nudging you both further down the large road to nowhere. You weren’t even sure if this was the way you came; all you seemed focused on was the sight of Taehyung’s feet leaving you behind in a cloud of dust. He was faster than you had anticipated, but, with experience, you endured the heat of the panic and gravitated towards his side.

“Y/N-” he began, looking at you with a breathless expression.

“Don’t talk!” you screamed in reply, pulling at his arm. “Just fucking run!”

Passing identical buildings, acting like copied and pasted images, it was hard to deny that you were exhausted. At one point, it felt like Taehyung was dragging your weight, your legs too tired to hurry along after his frame. The cries of hunger and agony from the biters behind you increased in volume, filling the atmosphere with a heaviness. If the group were close, they had heard the noises and thought better than sticking around.

“Turn! Here, here, here, here, don’t fucking stop running!” screamed your voice over the chaos, pushing Taehyung by his shirt towards a small and narrow alleyway between two smaller stores; a ladder, enclosed by a bar painted an ebony black, smiled in the darkness, and Taehyung thankfully ran towards it without hesitation. The sharp turn caught the mob off-guard, sending them skidding across the road.

Taehyung began to climb up the ladder, and you swiftly followed, veins pumping with fear and adrenaline, hands shivering as you climbed from step to step, height to height. A biter lunged for your boot, sinking its teeth into the heel and you kicked it in the jaw, a growl emerging from its torn jaw as it collapsed back into the hoard.

Finally reaching the top of the roof, you heaved yourself up over the low brick wall, physically feeling the exhaustion in your arms, a dampness under your armpits. Landing with a thud on top of Taehyung, a breath of hot hair released from your lips, strands of hair sticking to your forehead like cake mixture to a bowl. Both of your breaths were in sync; Taehyung lay beneath you, unmoving for the several moments of gathering breath, with the shakiness of his hands vibrating against your waist.

When the reality of lying on top of Taehyung sank in, you shuddered and lifted yourself up off his stomach, your palms scratching on the scorching hot roof. Behind you, Taehyung lifts himself up off the floor, leaning over the side of the wall to peer down at the biters below. Groans fill the air as he spots biters learning how to climb the ladder, and he gulps, saliva hot and solid moving down his dry throat.

“That was fucking insane,” he hissed, turning to you sharply as you pace in ovals on the roof. “What happened down there?”

“Biter came up on me,” you muttered, “didn’t hear it until it was too late.”

The biters congregated down below, a loud compilation of groans becoming disheartening as you fail to come up with a solution to this incredibly difficult problem. Taehyung jerks himself away from the wall, crouching to his backpack to take a swig of water he was planning to save until later. You turn halfway, thankfully taking a sip of the water he hands to you once he swallowed.

“What do we do now?” Taehyung asks, hands on his knees. He’s hunched over. “The group leaves at sundown. Will they wait?”

Swallowing thickly, you shake your head and shove the water back into his hands. “No. It’s the rules.”

“Fuck the rules,” he replies. “We’re a team.”

“Yeah, but we’ve worked this way for a while now. We won’t change just because you arrived to the group.”

Taehyung scoffed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Letting out a sigh, you pace back towards the wall overlooking the city. “It’s not ideal, I know. But if the group wait a second longer and lose their supplies to bandits or biters...it would be a waste of time. Our group are already vulnerable back at camp. We don’t wanna leave people behind. If you can help, do it, but we’re on a roof in the middle of the city and there’s no way in hell we can make it back in time without leaving right now.”

With nothing useful to say, Taehyung let his body drop with a thud on the floor, a cloud of dust circling his thighs as his bag dragged against the side of the wall. Above, the sky transitioned into auburn colours, clouds moving faster than smoke rising out a chimney, carried by the wind towards the direction of the camp. The sound of cicadas and the haunting birdsong, and the constant groan of death, was all to be heard as you clenched your outstretched hands into small balls, cursing the air with your gaze cast downwards; it eventually fell on the sight of a rusted, and unstable balcony a few stories below, a scrap of magenta cloth clinging to the corners, broken glass twinkling in the light.

As time moved, and hours rolled by, Taehyung had napped twice and your eyes would not move from the sight of the balcony, analysing each pattern and grid and rusted area, calculating jumps and falls and possible scenarios in your brain. Eventually, when the sky had darkened with rain clouds and night, the sun dipped behind a large storey building. Maybe the group would wait for you.

Maybe they’d think differently because you were their leader. Or maybe they didn’t need you.

With a fright, Taehyung jumped when you spun around to him, crouched on your knees with an urgent voice. “I have one plan, and if this plan fails, we are doomed.”

“Sounds promising,” he commented, without giving a plan of his own. Taehyung rubbed his eye with the heel of his palm.

“There’s a balcony,” you explained, moving across the roof to show him, pointing down at the brown painted overhang. He nodded with understanding, “it obviously goes into a room. We could sneak through the building and come out through the front. The herd are around the back, or in the alley, and the ones up front are too tired to react in time. We use that time to run back towards the truck. The group might have stayed behind for us, but if not, we can try to see if any of the cars around the area are salvageable. If all fails...we could camp in a building for the night. Start walking to camp. We’d be there in a day, or two.”

Taehyung stood quietly, thinking.

“It’s risky,” you considered, looking at him, bottom lip between top teeth. “But it’s the only plan I have.”

“It’s the only plan we have,” Taehyung replied. “I couldn’t think of anything better. Are you okay to run?”

Nodding your head, you adjusted the straps of your backpack, tightening it so it would manage the drop in silence. Taehyung hesitated, watching you climb over the half-wall and settle to sit, your legs hanging over the side above the short, nonetheless intimidating drop to the balcony. Quickly, however, he followed; Taehyung heaved himself up next to you, watching nervously as you pushed forward and back, with inner conflict.

“Ready?” he asked, gently, without demand.

Without talking, you pushed.

NEXT CHAPTER.

#IM SO HAPPY ITS OUT IMDNFJHAJK #ktaenet #btsguild #bts scenarios #bts imagines #bts #bangtan #taehyung #kim taehyung #taehyung x reader #taehyung imagine #taehyung smut #zombie apocalypse au #bts au #kth #tw: zombies #tlou

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imaginedanganronpa · 5 years

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Hi, this is pretty dark, but could you do the dr2 cast reacting to their s/o committing suicide to save them from the funhouse? For the ones that died before that chapter, can we assume they survived somehow? Thanks, I love your headcanons!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you so much! :) I also want to clarify some thingsabout this first:

The Requester didn’t know thatI don’t write Requests involving Suicide, so I talked to them about it and thisis going to be written as if the S/O sacrificed themselves, instead! (Kind oflike the Chapter 4 scenario in SDR2!) Secondly, instead of having the characters survive somehow, I wrotethis as if this was the First Chapter and no deaths had occurred yet since thatmade more sense to me. Anyway, enjoy!

SDR2 Cast Reacting To Their S/OSacrificing Themselves to Save Them From the Starvation Motive!

Hajime Hinata

You two grew close at the start of this strange Class Trip, beforeMonokuma ever made his first appearance. Hajime could relate to you and foundcomfort in your level-head and logical thinking.

You kept him sane and seemed to be the only other person on thisisland who was as alarmed by and suspicious of this situation as he was.

Things can only stay peaceful for so long, though; and soon afterMonokuma initiated the Killing Game and revealed the first Motive, your classwas trapped in the Funhouse on this cursed island and forced into akill-or-be-killed situation.

Hajime stayed close to you in the Funhouse since, being trapped inhere with seventeen students and forced into starvation, he knew that someonewould eventually fall into Monokuma’s hands and commit a murder. Starvationwould drive the rest of the group to insanity and he knew that things wouldn’t staystable for too much longer.

You two shared a room together, as well as a bed since there waslimited space. The short time you had together brought you both nothing butcontentment, and all you wanted to do was keep Hajime safe and happy. You knewthat everyone was a target at this point, and after being trapped in here for acouple of days, you realized that your lives were dwindling.

Hajime wouldn’t admit how hungry he was and seeing him grow thisdesperate only dragged you down further. You wished there was something youcould do to take his pain away…

And, although you had just recently met the other Ultimates, youdidn’t want to watch them all drop like flies. Although Hajime didn’t want youto take your own life, you both knew that there would be no point in thisKilling Game if a murder didn’t occur. If nothing happened, you had no chanceto escape or uncover the truth and reason behind this Game.

So, you devised a plan that would hopefully bring the rest of thestudents to safety and bring them closer to finding the Traitor and Mastermind.If you didn’t go through with this, then everyone would die a meaningless death- including both you and Hajime. At least, this way, he had a chance tosurvive… So, you place one last kiss on his temple and them slip out of bedto finally put an end to this Motive.

Hajime was abruptly woken up by the Body Discovery Announcement onthe morning of Day Four in the Funhouse. He rolled over as he reached out hishand to pull you close, and instead found you missing. Immediately, his heartbegan to pound and he instinctively jolted out of bed and swings the door openwith no hesitation.

Hajime frantically bounds towards the location of theAnnouncement, still half-dressed and blinking heavily. In his head, he was prayingthat it wouldn’t be you. After all, you were so calm throughout this situationand you were as determined as he was to get out of here alive. You didn’tbelieve in committing a murder, so how would you let yourself get killed?

In a way, he developed a false sense of hope that was shatteredthe moment he stepped foot in the Grape House and saw your lifeless bodyslumped in the corner, covered in blood.

All he could think about was how much you must have suffered whilehe was asleep, safe and sound. Hajime fell to his knees at your side and cursedwhoever did this, and wishing that he could’ve done something, anything, to prevent this.

He cradled your body and refused to let anyone handle your corpse,including Mikan. He performed the Autopsy himself under her instructions andbecame increasingly hostile with the others, knowing that someone here tookyour life.

But, to his surprise, the culprit was… you. Well, nottechnically, but it was your idea. You sacrificed yourself and allowed one ofyour classmates to end your life so that the others could escape, includinghimself. You did it to save the others, but Hajime just didn’t understand.

You meant so much to him, why would you throw it all away? Hajimewas breathless and perplexed, trying to make sense out of your plan.

In your eyes, it was easier to sacrifice two of your classmatesinstead of having everyone else die one by one; you sacrificed yourself for thegreater good, and everyone else seemed to understand and forgive you for youractions… except for Hajime.

He wished that he could have talked some sense into you or that hecould’ve been a part of your plan so that you could be together in theafterlife, and still served some purpose to the others.

But now, he was more determined than ever to uncover the Traitorand the Mastermind, and put a stop to this madness. You didn’t involve him inyour plans because you wanted him to live, and it took him a long time tofinally accept that.

If he wasn’t doing it for himself, he would do it for you. There’sno way he would let this Killing Game continue and for everyone else to die,and he wouldn’t let your death be meaningless or your sacrifice be in vain.

Chiaki Nanami

You and Chiaki sparked an immediate friendship upon first meetingin the Arcade, and afterwards she started to follow you since you were the onlyperson who seemed to understand her. Chiaki became a routine part of yourdaily life, which is likely where your feelings stemmed from.

She was a sweetheart and a part of you didn’t believe that someonelike her should be trapped in this Killing Game. From the moment Monokuma madehis arrival, you decided to protect one another. You wouldn’t let each otherdie, and you believed that she deserved better.

You two chose to room together, along with a handful of otherstudents. Chiaki seemed to always be by your side which made your future plansa lot more difficult to navigate around.

She did love you but she was still fairly oblivious to yourfeelings. Neither of you wanted to get serious while in the Killing Game, justin case something happened. But nevertheless, you promised to start a lifetogether once you got out of here…

You knew that things would start to get desperate and people wouldstart acting out of emotions. Chiaki was laying beside you peacefully on thefirst night in the Funhouse before you turn to her and ask, “Do you reallythink he’ll just kill us all right off the bat? I mean, he created thiselaborate Killing Game so why would he threaten to starve us?” Her response waschilling – “It won’t get to that point, someone will kill someone before thathappens.”

She was petrified and you could sense it and it pained you to seeher suffering so much; unable to find any relief in this mess, you knew whatyou had to do.

On Day Three, you split into several small groups to explore andtry to find a way to escape from the Funhouse. You broke into groups of four tolessen the chances of a murder occurring. You and Chiaki were split up and youended up getting put into a group with Mikan, Nagito, and Fuyuhiko. That’s whenyou and your accomplice finally broke away from the rest to unravel your plans.

Chiaki was exploring with her respective group when she heard theBody Discovery Announcement, closely followed by Mikan’s scream. Her reflexeswere sent into overdrive – she knew you were in Mikan’s group and had to get toyou. But realistically, it shouldn’t be you. Realistically, your group hadprobably just stumbled upon a different murder, right?

She hastily rushed to where you were, hoping it wasn’t you. Shewas praying that your group found a different body, that this was all in herhead. Please, please don’t let it be you.

But prayer means nothing in the Killing Game, and her world wasshattered the moment she stepped foot in the Tower where your body was slumpedagainst the far wall.

She handled it well or that’s what it seemed, disposing of heremotions and holding them back as to not show weakness. But for the first timesince she got to this island, her mind went completely blank. Everything seemedto just… stop.

Chiaki pretended like nothing happened and carried on with theInvestigation as normal, but everyone could see how exhausted and broken shewas.

She was much more rash during the Trial, quick to throw aroundaccusations in a desperate attempt to cause your killer to slip up, no longertrusting a single soul because the only person she could be herself around onthis island was taken away from her in a brutal manner.

How could they do this to you? Of all people.

Chiaki was stunned when your true intentions were revealed. Whenthe group realized that you sacrificed yourself to save the others fromstarvation, she went into denial. There was no way you’d give in that easily!What about all your plans together after you got out of here? You wouldn’t justthrow that away, right?

But maybe this wasn’t so bad. You saved her, and thirteen otherpeople. How could she stay mad at you after that?

And even after your Blackened came forth, Chiaki wasn’t content.She knows it was selfish, but she wished that it was someone else and that youwere still here.

Nagito Komaeda

Nagito sought you out when you first woke up on this island, andhis gaze peering over at you was the first thing you saw when your eyesfluttered open. You were laying on the Beach, facing up at the sky with hisface mere inches away from yours.

He remained unnervingly calm even after Monokuma’s arrival and thecommencement of the Killing Game - he wasn’t even swayed by the first Motive orthe possibility of dying from starvation.

That calmness was peaceful and serene, though. Somehow, he wasrelaxed even when everyone else was panicking, and perhaps that’s what broughtyou two together. You found yourself falling for Nagito because his mannerismsand behavior caused you to have a more hopeful outlook on your currentsituation.

He was pleasant company inside of the Funhouse, even though he hadsome questionable moments. Nagito was still kind and considerate towards youand took care of you. He always made sure you were getting enough sleep and dideverything he could to alleviate your stress and hunger. Plus, he promised thatyou would get out of here soon enough because someone’s ‘hope’ would bringthem to end this Motive.

But you weren’t as quick to buy into that hope. You watched yourclassmates deteriorate in a matter of days, and no one wanted to be the firstkiller or victim. Everyone was much more hesitant and skittish than normal, andafter a few days passed you feared that they would start dropping dead.

In a desperate and hasty attempt to save everyone, you devised aplan that would likely result in your own death. You were unsure of how Nagitowould handle it, but that wasn’t important now.

You kissed him and told him that you had some business to takecare of before slipping into the Bathroom to put your plan into motion.

When the Body Discovery Announcement was made inside of theFunhouse, Nagito felt relief fall upon his shoulders. With his heart leaping inhis chest, he was filled with excitement and content knowing that he couldfinally eat once again, and that his classmates had newfound hope to continuethis Killing Game.

But… when he arrived at the crime scene, something seemed out ofplace. His classmates all gathered: Hajime, Chiaki, Mikan, Ibuki, evenFuyuhiko… he counted heads. Everyone was here, except…

When his eyes fall upon your lifeless body sprawled out on thebathroom floor, his heart stopped. His entire body froze from shock and hisexpression faltered.

A sadistic smile forms on his face and he falls to the ground,clutching his heart. How terrible! Something terrible happening must meansomething amazing will happen soon, though! Right? And your death would providethe shining hope that he needed to uncover the Blackened of this Case!

As much as Nagito wanted to feel hopeful about this situation,though, the reality soon set in. As he placed his hand on your cold cheek, herealized that you were gone. You were really gone, and he couldn’t bring youback. His hope disappeared as he broke down into an unstable mental state.

But something amazing did happenafter all. As it turns out, you sacrificed yourself for the greater good of theothers.

Nagito wondered how you managed to slip under his radar anddevelop a plan like this without his knowledge, but he could only thank you forbeing such a ray of shining hope.

In reality, you were the most hopeful one of them all! You hadhope that they would realize that you sacrificed yourself and would continuethe Killing Game, and you died while grasping onto the bitter hope that yourclassmates would survive! How noble of you to sacrifice yourself withoutknowing whether or not they would solve the Case and live!

Nagito couldn’t imagine the immense hope you must have beenfeeling in your last few moments! And because of that, he would carry out yourwish and put an end to this Killing Game once and for all.

Ibuki Mioda

You were drawn towards Ibuki’s bubbly personality and the way shewas always so positive and optimistic, even when being thrown into a KillingGame. You often wondered how she remained so peppy. The attraction and way youfell for one another followed soon after.

Even after Monokuma revealed the First Motive and trapped everyonein the Funhouse, she didn’t seem too worried. Ibuki insisted that someone wouldfind a way out of here eventually, and she was one of the only people whodidn’t panic when the Starvation Motive was put into play.

She was so carefree and motivated you towards doing the same; sheradiated that bubbly energy.

But even Ibuki was starting to get beaten down after being starvedfor so long and she struggled to maintain her act.

You weren’t sure how much more of it you could take. When evenIbuki was being dragged into depression, you knew that this was serious. Shestruggled to maintain that upbeat persona and her hope of ever getting out ofhere was beginning to diminish.

You devised a plan to sacrifice yourself as a means to save theothers; it was just your time to go. You hadn’t really contributed to theKilling Game or been helpful in any way thus far and you truly didn’t expect tosurvive this whole ordeal anyway, so the least you could do was benefit theothers and make sure that they don’t all die a pointless death and rot from theinside out.

But you could never tell Ibuki about your plans because you knewshe would try to stop you.

All of the Ultimates held a meeting each morning to make sure thateveryone made it through the night, and you told Ibuki that you had to sleepelsewhere the night before; you insisted that you thought you had found a wayout of the Funhouse and wanted to investigate further. Although she tried tofollow you, a stern conversation shooed her away. Little did she know, you did find a way out…

When the Body Discovery Announcement sounded, everyone seemed tobe shaken to the core. Ibuki was terrified in particular when she realized thatyou weren’t at the meeting.

Ibuki immediately bolted towards the Dorms as she desperatelysearched for you. You were just sleeping is all! You slept through the alarm,she’d find you sleeping safe and sound!

Her all-too positive persona got in the way of reality. She keptinsisting that it wasn’t you, calling your name as she sprints through thebuilding. The rest of your class followed closely behind the Musician.

When she stumbled upon your body, she let out an ear-piercingscream. Ibuki was completely taken aback, confused and trying to figure outwhere everything went wrong.

Tears started to befall her cheeks and she had to turn away beforeshe completely collapsed. Her loud sobbing echoed through the halls as Mikanand Mahiru pulled her close, preventing her from looking at your body.

Ibuki was known for her offhand remarks and jokes, but that fadedaway and she was much more serious at the Trial. She remained fairly silent theentire time with crossed arms in a less than lively expression. A hatredstarted to form inside of her because she knew that someone here took yourlife.

“Wait… (Y/N) sacrificed themselves?” She couldn’t believe it, andshe didn’t want to, but evidence just didn’t lie. Ibuki never took you as thatkind of person and all the warning signs seemed to fly over her head at thetime, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

It took her a long time to fully accept your death and come toterms with what you did. Ibuki was never as preppy as she was before your loss,but slowly regained some of her past-self. She would be seen dragging her feetand mumbling, sometimes talking to you out of turn. But once she finally didwelcome your sacrifice, she was much cheerier.

It did still sting at times but in the end, you saved a group ofyour friends. She would regard you as one of the most selfless people she knowsand would only ever talk to you with a positive light.

And to cope, Ibuki would write a song for you - it’s the onlything she really knew how to do.

Gundham Tanaka

Despite Gundham’s villainous persona, you saw through him and knewthat he was a good person deep down, but he would never admit it or adhere tothat assumption. You still got to see his softer side and even his Four Devasshowed their approval of you, so that’s how he knew he could trust you.

After the Killing Game commenced and everyone was trapped in theFunhouse, Gundham started droning on and on about how he sensed that the firstmurder would take place very soon. All you could do was roll your eyes and hopethat that was simply his eccentric side talking and that he was wrong.

Regardless, he kept you close to his heart and didn’t want you toleave his sight. All he wanted to do was protect you from any possibleBlackened. At this rate, Gundham didn’t care who was killed as long as itwasn’t you. You’re the only person on the island who accepted him for who he isand received the Devas approval, and he wasn’t going to let that go easily.

Even though he insisted that Dark Lords don’t get hungry and thatthe Starvation Motive had no effect on him, you could hear his stomach growlingat night and the Animal Breeder desperately trying to quiet his body. It hurtyou to see everyone, especially the man you loved, be in such pain andsuffering.

You knew that Gundham was more than willing to sacrifice himselffor the others but you just couldn’t let him do that. How were you supposed tolive with that on your conscious? Perhaps that was a question you should’veasked yourself, though. You decided that it would be better to save the othersand do something beneficial in this Killing Game rather than let everyone diefrom starvation.

You told Gundham that you had some business to attend to and helet you go so easily, without asking very many questions. He trusted that youwouldn’t do something you’d soon regret… he also insisted that his Evil Eyecould watch over you when you two were apart, so he had nothing to fear.

When he heard the Body Discovery Announcement, he wasn’t tooalarmed. After all, what were the chances that it was you, right?

His hamsters were especially frantic and concerned after it wassounded as they buried themselves in the crook if his neck and refused to comeout from his scarf; it appears as though they sensed the truth before he did;their behavior unnerved him. Gundham dismissed it, though, and was summoned tothe group gathering in the Strawberry House, only to find you…

Gundham came face to face with your mangled body sprawled out on thefloor. With a gasp, he stumbles backwards and cries out. He couldn’t believe it!How could the Gods let this happen? He thought that they were on his side, onlyto strike down his beloved?!

Nothing about this scenario made any sense. But he was so used tobeing by himself that your death only reinforced his belief that he should stayisolated and keep everyone at a distance. It seems like everyone who gets closeto him is killed.

You can imagine the kind of hostility that soon followed – it tookall of Nekomaru’s strength to rip him away from the crime scene, otherwise hewas two seconds away from ripping off the heads of everyone in that room.Gundham let out a long, painful cry, and for the first time in awhile he beganto sob.

He was fairly compliant during the Trial but seemed to have ananswer for everything, so he wasn’t very helpful.

After discovering that youwere sacrificed, Gundham’s personality was altered. He showed much moregratitude, hiding his thankful smile under his clothing. He missed you dearly,but your death was not in vain. He would deem you a God in his eyes and would carry your memory with him for as long as he lived.

Although Gundham would act calm and collected, as if he was unfazed by your death, he was hurting inside. He was grateful for your sacrifice, but he kept going through scenarios in his mind. There had to be other ways, right? Why did you resort to a last-ditch effort to save everyone? That was something he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do himself.

The only thing that numbed the pain were the Devas who would cuddle into his neck whenever they sensed his sadness.

Mikan Tsumiki

You were the person that Mikan was drawn towards after getting onthis island. Out of everyone else here, you were the one person who showed herunfathomable kindness and welcomed her with open arms.

You made everything feel a little bit more like home and the Nursestarted to cling to you like glue. Not only that, but you became her protectorand made her feel a bit more content about your situation.

Mikan was especially concerned with this Motive because she waswell-aware of the affects that starvation had on the human body. She knew that,eventually, it would drive the others into making hasty and desperate choicesand she had a sinking feeling that it would lead to a murder. After all, wasn’tthat the point behind the Motive?

She thought that as long as she stayed by your side, then nothingbad could happen. If something did happen to you, then she’d be able to easilynurse you back to health. Her full intentions revolved around keeping you safeand alive.

Mikan wouldn’t tell you that she was hungry, but you knew she was.After all, everyone was. She just didn’t want you to worry and she was the typeof person to put others before herself; the Nurse was much more concerned withyours and the others well-being before her own.

You had been sleeping beside her at night and Mikan cuddled up toyou with her arms rightly wrapping around her body. You lay awake at nightlistening to her stomach growling and wishing that there was more you could dofor her.

She would likely be the first person to fall victim to this Motivebecause she was the only one who wasn’t trying to feed herself with items fromthe garden or other supplements.

Mikan was trying to nurse the others which resulted in her ownquick deterioration; she also offered herself up as a sacrifice so that therest of you could escape. That was, of course, the last thing you wanted.

The longer this Motive continued, the more she harmed herself.Even though it was unintentional, seeing Mikan in this state weighed far tooheavily on your mind. Maybe your mind became hazy due to the stress andmagnitude of your situation, but you came up with a way to escape; or at least,for the others to.

She was woken up by her own hunger pains and her mind went blank,her arms tried pulling you closer to find the empty space at her side and sheimmediately springs out of bed and her feet began moving without her realizingit; something just felt wrong to her.

A hunch creeps up at her and her stomachtwisted in knots – she didn’t like this feeling.

She was the first one to discover your body and it didn’t evenregister at first. All Mikan could do was stare forward. And then, she let outthe loudest scream she could muster. A waterfall of tears fell down her cheeksand she collapsed on the ground as she attempted CPR, knowing that it wasalready too late. Her scream alerted the rest of her classmates and her deepestfears were confirmed after Monokuma announced the Body Discovery.

What was she supposed to do now? Who would protect her? You wereher person, her beloved, how was she supposed to survive this Killing Gamewithout you? More importantly… who did this?

She was accused of being suspicious, mainly by Hiyoko, and eruptedin a fit of rage. Mikan was screaming about how she could never kill anyone,especially you. She was a sobbing, emotional mess at your Trial.

She was also the one who connected the dots: this wasn’t a bloody,pointless murder by an evil killer. It was your way of saving everyone,including her.

Mikan recalled your reactions to her offering herself as asacrifice and then broke down. Although you did something positive, her spiritwas still broken. She felt crushed and wished that there was some option thatdidn’t result in your death. She stays awake at night and wishes that you werestill with her.

She swears she can still feel your presence though, and even ifyou’re not here with her physically, she feels content in knowing that you’rewatching over her. Mikan may be devastated by your loss, as if she needed anyother reason to be an emotional wreck, but the only thing that comforted herwas knowing that you did it to save her, that you truly loved her. In the end,she simply wished you could feel her gratitude.

Kazuichi Souda

His attraction to you was immediate. Kazuichi was flirting withyou from the moment you got on this island, and after Monokuma showed up andbegan the Killing Game, he vowed to protect you with his life. Even if hedidn’t know you for very long, he knew that something about you was special anddifferent.

But Kazuichi isn’t the most confident man alive and after the StarvationMotive was put into play, you saw him revert into his weakest state. He stillacted strong around you, though, in an attempt to impress you. Admittedly, thefeelings were mutual and he didn’t have to try around you. That was a fact thatthe Mechanic soon realized.

He panicked and clings to you in the Funhouse, and often spokeabout finding a way out of here and off this island. He made fruitless promisesto survive and escape this Killing Game, and a part of you wanted to believehim.

But ironically, the Funhouse wasn’t so fun. You could sense ashift in your peers’ attitudes and motivations, and the sinking feeling that amurder would occur soon only intensified. As much as you wished you could bemore like him and believe in a false sense of hope, the harsh reality andgut-feeling couldn’t be ignored.

Kazuichi became much more skittish than usual, even around you.After he stopped trusting you is when you finally realized what you had to do.You didn’t want to see them, especially Kazuichi, turn into monsters andbloodthirsty killers who refused to trust their neighbors.

He started keepingyou at a distance and holding up his guard around you which only broke yourspirit further; it felt as though you had no other option and there was onlyone way to help the rest of your class, one last time.

He was one of the first people to discover your body; he walkedinto the bedroom you shared and his feet stopped moving immediately; everythingcame to a halt. Kazuichi rubs his eyes, convinced that he was only seeingthings, and after several moments of confusion and perplexity, he justscreamed.

For a moment, he prayed that he was just having a nightmare andpinched himself. But to his disappointment, this was… real. You were dead.

No one could calm him down or ease his mind and he turned into ashivering mess. He called for the others, only to be found covered in yourblood after hunching over your body. All of his strength left him and Kazuichislumped on the ground next to you, hot tears running down his face.

To no one’s surprise, he didn’t help with the Investigation. Theothers knew how much he loved you and simply let him be, allowing him to soakup the little time he had left with you to say his final goodbyes and no onedared try to speak to the grieving man.

Kazuichi doesn’t say much during your Trial and actually becomesquite the headache. He has an excuse for everything and in his eyes, everyone herewas your killer. He was determined to find the real Blackened but everyone wason equal level with him. He even blamed himself – if he hadn’t pushed you away,maybe this never would’ve happened and he could have protected you.

He goes into a desperate denial when your intentions wereuncovered. “There’s no way (Y/N) would do something that fuckin’ stupid! Itold them I’d find a way out of here!” Kazuichi emotionally exclaims.

All he wanted was to have you back. After the Vote, he sinks downto the ground, hands on his temples with thoughts racing through his mind. Hethinks for a long time, about what must have been going through your head onyour final day.

Kazuichi may not understand it, but he had to respect your choice.You did it with the best intentions and the biggest heart, and if you didn’tcare about him then you wouldn’t try to save him. He still partially blamedhimself and was damaged after your death, his attitude changing for theremainder of the Killing Game, but he would only ever speak of you fondly.

Hewas grateful for the little time he got to spend with you and will cherishthose memories for as long as he lives, although he’ll never love someone thesame again.

Peko Pekoyama

Since her relationship with Fuyuhiko was strictly off limits, shehad to find another source of reason; and she found that in you.

But that quickly changed once the Killing Game started andeveryone got trapped in Monokuma’s Funhouse. Peko became much more protectiveand vigilant over you. She insisted that she know where you were at all timessince she didn’t want to run the risk of you getting killed. You could tellthat she didn’t trust any of her classmates other than you, not even Fuyuhikoat this point.

But you worried that she would do something dangerous after beingtrapped in here. Peko was a bit unpredictable at times, a loose cannon, and youdidn’t know what she was capable of when her loved ones were at stake. You’dcaught her more than once as she daydreamed with a sinister look on her face.

You wanted to prevent her from doing something you wouldn’tapprove of. You also wanted to save her from this Killing Game, and at thisrate there was only one way you knew how. She was becoming more irritable astime passed, even lashing out at you – if you didn’t do something soon, youknew that she would.

After getting in an argument with an agitated, hungry Peko, youexcused yourself and decided to go ahead and go through with your plan. Youwaited until she fell asleep and then placed on last goodbye kiss on herforehead.

The next morning, Peko wasn’t very concerned with the BodyDiscovery Announcement. She didn’t even show any signs of concern when you weremissing beside her, although she could have just been smothering her emotions.

She calmly walked towards the Tower where it was located with astraight face and crossed arms; truthfully, she was a little bit curious tofind out who was murdered, but felt more thankful that she could finally eatonce again. She knew you were strong enough to defend yourself and had to havefaith that you were safe.

But for some reason, she didn’t see your comforting face among thecrowd of Ultimates, surrounding the far wall of the Tower. She furrowed herbrows as she cautiously approached; Fuyuhiko caught glimpse of her and tried tohold her back, but Peko forcefully shoved her way past the small man.

Her eyes darkened once she finally noticed your body. She stoppedin the middle of her tracks, and simply stared down at you with an emotionlessexpression. Crouching down and lifting your head, she examined your face whichstill looked so peaceful even in death. Peko holds your body close to her chestpromised to find your killer so that you may rest in peace.

For the first time in her life, she was unsure of what to do.Bodies don’t normally faze her – she has killed people before and is a trainedswordswoman, but she’s never lost someone she’s cared about so much.

The first thing Peko does after finally letting you go is punch awall which causes everyone else to jump. She curses and grits her teeth, growlingthat it should have been her not you, and she’d trade places if she could.

She vowed to never forgive your killer for as long as she lived;her eyes scanned the crowd who began backing away from her. Someone here tookyou away from her… a part of her wished that she could execute them herself.

With a sad smile, Peko encouraged everyone to begin theInvestigation. She would never be able to find out who was responsible for thisif they all just stood around, after all. She became much more commanding,assuming a leadership role in this Case.

During the Trial, Peko glared at the others with a menacing gazethat sent chills down the spines of even Gundham and Fuyuhiko.

When she came to the realization that you sacrificed yourself tosave the others, she was in utter shock. There was no way that you of allpeople would simply lay down your arms and give up and let someone take yourlife! You always told her to fight her instincts and to refrain from violence,and yet you let someone do this to you?

But Peko’s respect for you only increased once she realized thatyou did it for the greater good. Regardless, she didn’t understand why you didthis, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t thankful for it.

Truly, you had the heart of a warrior. You were the bravest personhere and she would carry your memory with her forever. But Peko won’t fall inlove again, her heart belongs to you.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu

When first arriving on this island, Fuyuhiko kept you at the samedistance as everyone else. He showed little to no interest in you until theKilling Game actually started, and after that he slowly inserted himself inyour life.

When he was completely avoiding the others, he found himselfshowing up at your doorstep and seeking out your company. You got to see hissofter side, the man that Fuyuhiko truly was. Even Yakuza like him seemed tohave a kind, sensitive side somewhere deep inside of them. You could sense thatand maybe that’s why he cared about you so much.

Everyone seemed to be wary of you since you were affiliated withFuyuhiko. In his mind, this was a good thing because it meant that no one wouldfuck with either of you.

In the Funhouse, Fuyuhiko does his best to bring you seeds fromthe garden and other ways to keep you sustained. You knew he truly did careabout you as his parental and protective instincts kick in. All he wants to dois care and look after you.

He’d be damned if he was taken out by starvation because thatisn’t an honorable way to go. He became much more hostile and agitated as hegot hungrier and soon, the situation turned dire.

But you knew you had to do something. Fuyuhiko was irritable,especially now that he’s trapped with limited space to roam around. You fearedthat he may lash out and hurt someone if he didn’t get to escape from heresoon, and you really didn’t want to watch everyone else die one by one. Youwouldn’t be able to tolerate it; and the longer you were trapped in theFunhouse, the more you lost your mind.

You knew that there was limited time left, and you’ve had to breakup fights that your boyfriend got himself into several times since this Motivestarted. You slowly became desperate and fearful of your life and his.

Fuyuhiko was woken up to a sight for sore eyes: he found your bodyjust outside of your room, hunched against the door. It took all of hisstrength to shove the door open, and the instant he saw your corpse, he let outa loud cry for help.

The tougher side of himself falters and his knees shake as hecollapses to the ground. Tears of anger and frustration started streaming downhis face and Fuyuhiko’s screams of anguish and resentment woke everyone else upand brought their attention to the crime scene within a few moments. His heartsank and any hope that you were still dangling onto dear life faded whenMonokuma made the Body Discovery Announcement.

“Who the fuck did this?! I’ll fucking kill you, I swear to God!”Fuyuhiko snaps at the others who were now standing in a semicircle around yourbody. He was still on his knees on the floor, gritting his teeth and sobbing ashe held you, pounding his fist against the ground. It didn’t matter if theothers saw him crying, he didn’t care about anything else right now.

Fuyuhiko went into a state of shock and denial, especially duringthe Investigation. He couldn’t stand watching them tamper with your body andtalking about you as if you were just another obstacle. You were still aperson, dammit, and he should be the one handling you!

But he just couldn’t bring himself to Investigate. It only broughthim sadness and caused him to distance himself from the rest of the Ultimateseven further. No one hardly saw him after your death, not even Peko.

He became furious at the Trial when Monokuma announced the revelationthat you sacrificed yourself and let someone else kill you so that the otherscould escape. “Quit lying, you bastard! (Y/N) would never fuckin’ dothat!” He became even more enraged at the sound of Monokuma’s smug laughter.

He was pissed off for a while but he soon recovered. Your death iswhat opened him up to new beginnings and made him start cooperating with theothers – if he had just done that sooner and not been such a hard-ass, youwouldn’t have felt the need to sacrifice your own life. Fuyuhiko blames himselffor what happened to you, but he can’t stay pissed off forever.

He wasn’t used to being so hurt by death, he sees it all the time.But yours turned him into a new man and he vowed to carry your honor and yourprinciples with him and live like you’d want him to. You sacrificed yourselfwith a pure heart and good intentions and the least he could do was try tosurvive this thing for you. But, if he didn’t, then at least he’d get to seeyou again.

Sonia Nevermind

She was very popular among your entire class: after all, she wasthe pretty foreign exchange student. But Sonia always seemed to be much fonder ofyou, and your relationship sparked from there. You were the only person whotreated her like a real human and like an equal instead of fawning over her forher status.

Sonia wasn’t very keen on this Killing Game; nothing about it madesense to her. She didn’t understand the reality of the situation until theywere trapped in the Funhouse. Sonia believed that there was no way any of thiswas real for the first several days.

But for the first time in her life, she had a reason to genuinelyfeel fear and worried for her own life. It was a feeling that made heruncomfortable because she isn’t used to it.

Sonia insisted that she didn’t need to eat and that she got bywith little subsistence anyway, but you weren’t so convinced that she was beinghonest with you. It broke your heart because, even though she acted cheeryaround you, you saw glimpses of her true feelings: her frowns, the light fadingfrom her eyes. She looked so miserable and at night, you could feel hertrembling from fear and hunger.

You excused yourself for a moment, not actually revealing yourplans to Sonia. You cared for her but couldn’t let her know what you were doingbecause of how badly it would hurt her. This was something you had to dobecause a murder was evidently not happening any time soon and you couldn’t letSonia starve to death, or worse - get murdered. She had a country to take careof and she needed to survive this Killing Game, not starve to death likenothing.

Perhaps, surviving without you was the only way to accomplish thatgoal.

She was the first one to find your body, which was lying in abloody mess on the floor of the Grape House.

Sonia let out a loud, heart-wrenching scream which summonedKazuichi and Gundham to her side, and immediately broke down into tears. TheBody Discovery Announcement only confirmed her suspicions. The boys triedcomforting her but how could she feel at ease after you were killed? You wereso kind and gentle that you were the last person she ever suspected wouldbecome a target to a ruthless killer. It’s not like she isn’t used to the topicof death or dark subjects, but she lovedyou. How could this happen?

Sonia was interested in the darker things in life and all her timeand knowledge spent analyzing crimes and killers served a purpose and becamevery useful after your death. She was much more level-headed in your Trial thanyou thought she would be, but maybe this was due to her being used to remainingcalm and poised as a Princess.

She let a few loose tears fall when they uncovered the truth,struggling to maintain that proper poise and mannerisms. It became obvious toSonia that you were stronger than anyone else here, and she was floored fromyour bravery and golden heart.

However, she did become much colder and detached after your death.She could smile knowing that you did this for her sake and praised you forbeing such a brave, selfless soul, but the heartache and grief that she feltwas unbearable.

To cope with your loss, Sonia writes letters addressed to you anduses her knowledge of the occult to try sacrificing things to you as well; sheonly hoped that your spirit was able to receive her messages. The Princess wasable to forgive you, and even thank you, for doing what you did and focused onthe positive reasons rather than your absence.

Sonia hopes that you are happy in Heaven and believes that yourGuardian Angel will protect her and guide her through this Killing Game. She swearsthat she can feel your presence around her at all times.

And she was determined to find the Mastermind and end this awfulGame so that she could build a memorial statue in your likeness and honor inher home country once she escaped, so that you would never be forgotten foryour cause and kind heart.

Nekomaru Nidai

Nekomaru admired you for always being strong, and you had the soulof a warrior! Even at the start of this Class Trip, he could tell that you weredifferent from the rest of the pack.

He became your protector and the man who promised to keep you safefrom any harm. There was no doubt in his mind that the others wouldn’t harm youif he stayed close to your side and that was exactly what he intended todo.

Nekomaru coached you through the Funhouse but it seemed like heshould be more worried about himself. His intense personality may ward offpotential Blackened but you were more than sure that something bad washeading your way.

You feared that Nekomaru may be in danger, because even hegrew weak and feeble after being starved for days - everyone was a target atthis point.

You didn’t necessarily want to die, but you took theresponsibility upon yourself to save your loved ones. It was something you andNekomaru have talked about before and something you knew he would do, but youwere just beating him to the punch.

He was waiting for the others to arrive at the mandatory morningmeeting, talking to Akane about your current situation as her stomach groanedand she complained about the Starvation Motive. After the rest of your classfiled in, Nekomaru became increasingly worried when you didn’t show up.

He was stricken with fear after the Body Discovery Announcementplayed and the other Ultimates turned towards him and gave him an uneasy lookupon noticing your disappearance.

It didn’t take him long to locate your corpse and all he could doto release his anger was slam his fist into the nearest wall and let out abone-chilling wail of pain and anguish.

Why couldn’t he protect you like he promised? And who would dothis to you? His angry eyes scanned the crowd, everyone seemed suspicious tohim. He was staring at a killer, yourkiller, and wouldn’t rest until they were served justice.

Nekomaru becomes much more distant after your death, leading up toyour Trial. He was unresponsive towards the others, including Akane. He lackedemotions and all he wanted to do was pummel whoever did this to you.

Nothing could have prepared him for the truth. The large manquaked with grief, trembling when the realization set in. He knew that youwouldn’t be killed that easily, but how could you possibly sacrifice yourselfand what have you done?! He hoped that he wasn’t the one who put that idea intoyour head.

In a lot of ways, your sacrifice made Nekomaru feel like he failedyou. He couldn’t protect you from the horrific possibility that everyone heremay have died, but in reality, you were so much stronger than anyone else here.

It took unimaginable courage to do what you did, and for that hewas thankful. That was something that not even he was willing to do, and it wasa noble way to go. He couldn’t stay angry with you for your sacrifice, and fromthat moment forward all he wanted to do was make you proud.

He thought he should be the one protecting you, when in actualityyou were the one protecting, and saving, him as well as the others – you died ahero in his heart.

Nekomaru spends a lot of time reflecting on your memories andthinking about you. He carries you close to his heart and, if he couldn’t keephis original promise to protect you, he would at least vow to carry on yourmemory.

Mahiru Koizumi

You made a promise to protect Mahiru in this Killing Game sincethat was exactly what she would want you to do. You two formed an unbreakablebond so quickly and took up the leadership position on this godforsaken island.

You could sense her fear after being trapped in the Funhouse andsentenced to either kill someone or starve to death. It was truly a terrifyingsituation to be in and slowly, the Ultimate students stopped trusting one anotherand started glaring over their shoulder everywhere they went.

But you could tell that Mahiru was much more scared than she waswilling to admit.

You knew that a senseless killing would take place and yourbeloved classmates would soon turn against each other if something wasn’t doneto stop them. Mahiru was a very easy target due to her vulnerability and youfeared for her life as she grew weaker and much easier to take advantage of.

The last thing you wanted to do was to leave her stranded to fendfor herself, but you vowed to protect her, didn’t you? After several failedescape attempts, you seemed to run out of all other options.

You sneak away in the middle of the night to carry out your plans,looking at Mahiru one last time. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep,and you knew that the possibility of one of you dying was high. You didn’t wantto lose her and knew that this is what you had to do; for everyone.

Hiyoko and Ibuki found your body and immediately rushed to breakthe unfortunate news to Mahiru. It was an upsetting discovery but what elsecould they do? She had to find out eventually…

When the Photographer laid eyes on your body, her world stoppedspinning.

The other two girls had to support her and lift her up so that shedidn’t completely collapse on the ground – all of her strength was gone in aninstant and she felt sick to her stomach.

After your loss, the females on the island did their best tosupport her but Mahiru was picky about who she let into her life. None of themwere you, and one of them was your murderer. How could she ever get close toanyone ever again?

She becomes defensive during your Investigation, and much pushierthan normal. She bosses the others around and keeps a watchful eye on thegroup, determined to find your killer. Mahiru is forcefully tellingeveryone want to do and assigning tasks, demanding that they find whoever wasresponsible for this.

Even after the verdict was revealed and your motives came tolight, she didn’t feel satisfied. A small, bitter smile appeared on her lips,but how could she possibly be happy at the thought of you dying for her? Still,you were the most selfless person she’s met, and she admired you for yoursacrifice.

Mahiru cries… a lot, in the wake of your death. She would lookback at photos she took of you and run her fingers along your image as if shecould still feel you there.

And when things got really difficult or lonely, she would look upat the sky and talk to you. She only hoped that you could hear her in this timeof need and prayed that you’d continue to protect her in this Killing Game.

Mahiru thanks you multiple times, because she knew she would bedead if you hadn’t done what you did.

Although she misses you dearly and wantsnothing more than to have you back, she has forgiven you and promises to bestrong, for both herself and for you. It’s what you would want after all, andshe didn’t want to waste your sacrifice.

Teruteru Hanumura

You were never swayed by some of his questionable remarks and evenfound Teruteru to be quite entertaining and uplifting. You became attracted tohim since he was unapologetically himself and you found both comfort and humorin that fact.

Of course, he had an undeniable attraction towards you as well.Pretty soon, you were spending all your time together and joined at the hip.

But the Funhouse Motive particularly terrified the Chef since, ifno one could eat then he couldn’t cook for the others and he felt as though histalent was going to waste. All he wanted to do was bring hope to his class inany way that he could, and the best way he knew how was through cooking. But,alas, that would no longer be an option.

Teruteru wasn’t a fan of this Starvation Motive at all, but thatwouldn’t pressure him into killing anyone. He often ranted to you about howunfair it was and how he felt restricted, and all you wanted was for him to beable to flourish.

You did fear that he would do something he soon regrets butyou wanted to trust him and believe that he had self control.

That motivation is what originally caused you to develop yourplan. But the thing that really sets you over the edge is seeing how irrationaleveryone else became and watching your classmates lash out at one another. Theywere especially hostile towards Teruteru who talked about food and cooking alot, which only provoked the starving students.

You worried that he might get himself killed, and you felt a needto save him in the only way you knew how. This Motive really starved you inmore ways than one – starved you physically and starved your options.

You had to distance yourself from him first because Teruteru clungonto you, especially after coming under fire from his classmates.

He knocks on your bedroom door and calls out your name timidly; hewas a bit surprised when the door was unlocked. You were one of the mostcautious people in the Funhouse, after all, and wouldn’t forgot to lock yourdoor at night.

Teruteru’s body shook to the very core when the door swings opento reveal your lifeless body. He just didn’t think it would happen or even could; you were too sweet and gentletoward everyone here. He started to sob tears of frustration.

The Chef was completely broken and became hostile towards theothers, demanding that your killer come forth. Obviously, it wouldn’t be thateasy, but he was desperate for answers. Why? Why would someone do this?!

He desperately clutches your body close to his chest, refusing tolet go and snapping and Mikan when she tried performing herAutopsy. “Wh-what do it matter? (Y/N) is dead, no need for a damnautopsy!” His accent started to peek through as he frantically holds you onelast time.

Teruteru couldn’t describe the pain in his heart. This continuedinto your Trial, where he screamed at the other Ultimates and was a real paintowards those like Hajime, who tried sorting out your death.

Everyone tried comforting him once the truth was revealed; thegirls flock to his side, which he would typically enjoy but everything else wasno longer important. You weren’t just dead, but you were dead by your own intentions?

He was so utterly confused by your loss. He didn’t think you hadit in you to sacrifice yourself like an animal, and Teruteru wondered if he hadany part in it. I

t took a toll on the man and he wondered how he would be ableto continue without you. A part of him wanted to be grateful that you gave upyour life to save the others, but he just couldn’t. He wants you here, not in the afterlife.

To cope, he would bake things he knew you enjoyed. That was theonly thing that gave him a sense of purpose now and he felt like he had yourapproval, even now.

Hiyoko Saionji

Hiyoko wouldn’t admit how much the Killing Game or Funhouse scaredher, but at least she had you. You are the only person she is actually nice toand that’s mainly because you understood her and helped her throughout herdaily life. You were the kindest person she’s met on this island and would goout of your way for her, so she naturally gravitated towards you.

Her childlike essence comes out after Monokuma revealed the firstMotive and you sensed how terrified she was, although Hiyoko would never showit. She tried acting brave around you and insisted that she didn’t care aboutthis Motive, but her sobbing and trembling kept you up at night.

And the way she clings to you like a child, especially in thishigh stakes’ situation, said it all. She felt safe in your arms, like nothingbad could ever happen to her. You felt like home and Hiyoko truly believed thatno one could harm her on your watch.

She would pout whenever her stomach growled and become defensive whenshe swore she wasn’t hungry. She became jittery, though, and all she wanted wassomething sweet to satisfy her.

You didn’t want to break her down, but you realized that yoursacrifice would only benefit the greater good. Hiyoko was too stubborn toacknowledge that and you knew that your death would only hurt her in the end,but it was something that had to be done or else everyone here would die.

You had to sneak out while she was sleeping, or else you’d neverhave privacy. Placing one last kiss on her forehead, you slipped out of yourroom in the middle of the night to finally end this awful Motive.

Hiyoko was woken up by the Body Discovery Announcement thefollowing morning and panicked when she realized that you were no longer besideher.

She flings her bedroom door open, still half-asleep and her kimonoa wreck, to find a group of people crowding around something. Her eyes timidly scanned her classmates, tryingdesperately to find you in the crowd. But… you just weren’t there.

Tears formed in her lashes as she forcefully pushes her waythrough the sea of Ultimates. Mahiru tried grabbing her to try to stop her fromseeing the awful sight, but the short woman slipped through her grasp andpaused when she saw your lifeless body lying in a pool of blood on the ground.

Hiyoko instantaneously burst into tears and dropped to the ground,clutching your face and feeling nauseous due to how strikingly cold it was. Shescreams for you to wake up and beats her fists against your chest, but to noavail.

Hiyoko becomes hostile during the Investigation. She demanded thatno one touch you, especially “Pig shit Mikan!” Some of the boys had toforcefully drag her away from your body so that they could properly Investigateand she thrashed against their grasp.

Her emotions get the best of her and she becomes defensive at yourTrial. For someone who always acted so tough and hardcore, Hiyoko was tremblinglike a leaf now and seemed genuinely terrified of the killer lurking among you.It was a bit discerning seeing her act like this since none of the other Ultimateswere used to it. She also berated the killer once they were discovered and hadto be held back so that she didn’t harm them herself.

But once your intentions were brought to light, her demeanor graduallychanges. Hiyoko went into denial and cried even harder at first, but this quicklyturned into cheers and she showed gratitude for your sacrifice. In her eyes,you’re one of the most amazing people to ever live.

Hiyoko is angry and hurt by your loss, but she will be grateful toyou; although, it takes a long time for her to finally adjust to yourintentions and accept your death. In a way, she still wishes that it was herinstead.

But she builds a shrine for you on the Main Island, however itcomes across as a bit sinister and morbid. She spends most of her free-timeadmiring it and adding to it and can sometimes be heard talking to it as well.

You’re like a hero to her, but she can’t deny that she was still hurt by youractions. She was relieved that she got to live another day; she only wishedthat you were with her physically and not just in spirit.

Imposter

You felt an attraction to him because of the way he made you feel– his determination and drive was extremely enticing to you. And with him, youfelt safe, even after the Killing Game started.

All he wanted to do was lead the others to safety and you wantednothing more than to aid him in that quest. The Imposter was admirable andnoble in the way he put others before himself.

He had a plan to get everyone out of the Funhouse alive, and hemade sure that those plans went accordingly. However, they slowly started tounravel and blow up in his face.

You two grew close because you were both leader types and shared adetermination to protect the others and wanted what was best for your classmatesin this Killing Game; neither of you wanted anyone to die. This Motive reallybacked you both into a corner, though.

And because of that, his mind took an even bigger toll when hefailed to find a way to escape. You could feel him crumbling under the pressureand the weight of the Starvation Motive, desperate to save everyone. He was bucklingunder the pressure when he couldn’t help anyone, and when a murder was bound totake place. He was so frantic he was to protect everyone and drained himself inthe process.

You knew that that was the last thing he wanted, but unlike theImposter, you did know a way out ofhere… it’s just went against his goals; but sometimes, you got to do what yougot to do.

Your disappearance wasn’t the original thing that startled him.Byakuya Togami was supposed to be a leader type, a strong individual. But hewas not Byakuya Togami, and he was not nearly as cool-headed in situationswhere his loved one is in danger, or possibly worse.

It took all of his strength to not fall to his knees when he foundyour body. He, along with a small group including Hajime, Nagito, and Chiaki,all stumbled upon your corpse at the same time. The other three triedrestraining him but couldn’t hold him back as he slowly and cautiouslyapproached you, a perplexed expression on his face and tears brimming in hiseyes.

The Body Discovery Announcement caused his heart to sink as hecould no longer deny the reality. The others soon rushed into the building youwere in and screamed at the sight of your body.

As much as he wanted to grieve and break down to cry, the Imposterknew that doing that would get him nowhere. “Let’s get to investigating,” hesays bitterly, with an angry hint in his voice.

And even though he wants to partake in the Investigation and beinga productive member, he spends a lot of time just cradling your body. Holdingthe husk that once contained life, staring down at you and wondering where itall went wrong. He looked so solemn and sorrowful, his eyes filled withsadness.

The Imposter needs time away from the others and avoids the groupuntil the Trial. He lost a lot of his faith but snapped out of it once everyonearrived in the Courtroom because he knew that he needed to bring your killer tojustice.

And you knew that he would be angry with you so you leave a handwrittenletter in his name, telling him that you only did it to save everyone. Mikanfound it while performing your Autopsy and handed it to him during the Trial.It didn’t take long for him to connect the dots afterwards.

The Imposter doesn’t want to cry because doing that would onlyupset you if you were still alive. He just felt so exhausted and mentally tired,like he could sleep for years. He holds the letter close to his heart and keepsit with him at all times, rereading your words and stroking the paper you oncetouched. It was the final piece of you he had left.

He was just so… confused. Why would you do this when you knew hewas going to save everyone? Maybe you could see him failing and that in itselfbroke his heart.

He didn’t think you would ever do something like this, and yethere you were. The Imposter couldn’t grasp your reasoning and wished you hadheld out a little longer so that he could save you too, but he can’t say hewouldn’t have done the same. He misses you greatly but comes to terms with yoursacrifice.

Akane Owari

You’re not entirely sure what drew you and Akane together, butthere was an undeniable attraction that neither if you could refute.

She had a charm about her, and even in the Killing Game sheremained so oblivious and innocent. It was pretty endearing and only caused youto fall for her harder – she, on the other hand, took much longer to realizeher feelings. Akane didn’t piece it together until you were trapped in theFunhouse together.

As soon as the first Motive was revealed, you knew that Akanewould have a hard time. Her life revolved around food and eating, and sheshowed signs of struggle right from the start.

Being trapped here to starve seemed like a nightmare and everyonealready knew that she was going to have issues. The others already pinned heras a future killer due to the hostility she showed when she was hungry, resultingin her isolation, and it didn’t take long before Akane started fights withpeople.

You didn’t want to watch her suffer any longer. You knew that shewas struggling and couldn’t stand seeing how the other students were treatingher! She wasn’t a killer, but theywere sure distancing themselves as if she was one. Akane is a strong woman withundeniable willpower, and when even she was breaking down and showing signs ofweakness is when you knew that things would soon take a turn for the worst.

You kiss her one last time and then promise her that you’re goingto fix everything. Her hard-headedness kicks in and she begins trailing you,asking you what you had in mind. “Just let me be alone for a while,” you snapat her, causing the Gymnast to back away and leave you be.

She was minding her own business, spending time confiding inNekomaru when the Body Discovery Announcement sounds and her heart immediatelysank into her empty stomach.

Akane leaps up and begins bounding towards the locationimmediately, shoving anyone who stood before her out of her way. Nekomarucalled for her and followed very closely behind, trying his best to prevent herfrom seeing something that may hurt her.

It couldn’t be you, though! You were far too powerful to give inthat easily!

But, that belief means nothing here. Her fiery attitude disappearsand she stops in her tracks like dead-weight when she enters the Tower whereyou were… lying in a pool of your own blood. When Akane finally sees your body,she screams and collapses to the ground. Nekomaru had to grab her and pull herback, maintaining her quaky balance.

She was confused… why you? What did you do? She knew better thananyone else here that something fishy was going on and she would be damned ifshe lets you go that easily.

Akane continued to be hotheaded in your Trial, debating witheveryone else and cussing at her classmates. She spewed threats and promised todrive whoever did this into the ground. But, the person responsible… alreadywas.

Wait, this meant that she could eat! But… you were cold and dead. It’snot like Akane to lose her appetite, but suddenly the idea of food didn’t seemso appealing to her. That was the very thing that drove you to sacrificeyourself and it took her days to finally have the strength to eat once again.

She wishes she could change it and that she could’ve been strongenough to protect you. She failed to realize that this outcome was inevitableand that your sacrifice was not in vain – you mainly did it for her and for thatshe had to be thankful.

But it takes Akane a long time to finally come around and acceptreality. Nekomaru became her rock that watched over her and her shoulder to cryon in this painful time. She isn’t used to feeling this weak or troubled by aloss and hated feeling vulnerable.

She promised to grow stronger for you since you wouldn’t want herto sit around and sulk, and all she wanted to do was become a better person inyour honor. Akane wanted to make you proud and improve for next time, vowing tonever let something like this happen again.

- Mod Rantaro

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remade3940580486940568 · 5 years

Text

Panacea

(watch out- body horror/lots of fun gore/whatever)

Alex encounters the source.

The thing– no, the human– dropped down from the wall, chains clattering to the ground with an echo that pierced the dark, its limp body coming to life with pops of ancient joints. It inhaled for the first time with a pained shudder.

“Lēoht,” it wailed, strangled sounding and scrambling at its eyes, shivering violently all the while.

Alex stumbled back, heart pounding in her ears. Other humans were here!– But this one was off, viscerally wrong. It towered over her, body stiff and crooked, and bore numerous oozing bubous on its skin. Despite being in its youth, it seemed to carried an ancient fatigue, struggling to stay standing. It let another cry, then dove towards some of the rubble and plucked a hefty stone from the pile. Alex’s eyes widened, and she made to jolt towards the door. The abomination raised the rock–

– and brought it crashing down on its own head with incredible force.

“Oh, Jesus–”

But it didn’t seem to hear her swears, nor the way she shuddered in nausea with each ugly crack, and with each beating of the stone, the strange human only seemed to grow more enraged with itself, shouting in some language that felt achingly familiar yet off. Viscous fluid flooded from the cracks, and Alex realized that it wasn’t going to stop until it had dashed its own brains onto the floor. The rotting stench, the blood, the sound of bone snapping– sickness overwhelmed her, her stomach churned, and soon she was bent over, violently puking onto the cold cobblestone.

So violent, in fact, that she hadn’t noticed the silence.

She glanced back up, trying to catch her breath, and– right there! The mutilated head, overcome with curiosity, was right there– in her face! Instinct overtook, and the intruding face was met with a right hook to the jaw. There was a resounding snap as its teeth clashed together–

And it laughed, and laughed, and laughed, wobbling backwards. That was when she noticed something peculiar. Oozing from its caved in skull bled not red but gold, somewhere between blood and honey in thickness. It lacked the usual iron scent, and seemed to glow faintly- barely even perceptible- at the source of the wound. There was no way any normal person could survive that sort of damage, too, although Alex felt pretty certain that no sane person could even do that to themselves in the first place.

“Get away from me,” she hissed, voice low and threatening. Her fists clenched in preparation. Any part of her that could have felt pity was swamped by instinctive revulsion from its miasma and infectious bubous. She wasn’t sure if her words could even be understood, but it seemed to catch the message and, at the very least, did not get any closer. Instead, it croaked;

“W-waaa…”

It pawed at its head in frustration, groaning, then slapped its left eye- scratched beyond recognition.

“Waa-atch.”

As it moved its palm away, Alex glanced at the mess. It was– it was vile. One of its filthy, talon-like nails must have caused an abrasion. There was more of that syrupy stuff, too, and it glowed with more a little intensity than the rest. Trapped in the thing’s gaze, she considered bolting, only for something terribly curious to happen.

The wound pulsed with gentle light, and as if guided by an outside force, began to knit shut, as did the various other superficial scratches on its face. Ichor, she thought in awe, the realization hitting as what seemed first to be pus glowed bright gold and healed its self-inflicted damage. She jerked her head up to view its skull, though it seemed just as broken as it was before. Would that heal too, with time?

Her curiosity vanished when the thing grinned widely and grabbed her. Full blown panic sparked in her heart, and she made to flee, because God, there was no way she could fight that thing, not now, not ever–

“Alex? Are you in here?”

– and the god-like abomination’s face fell into a terrorized snarl at the sound of Dorothy’s soft voice.

“Pestilent,” it growled, contempt blatant.

It rose to its true height for the first time, taking in her second rattling breath total, and gently shoved Alex aside. Her disgusted protests were ignored as it moved forward, twitching while Dot’s dancing shadow descended into the basement…

#.doc #panacea.world

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reylofanfictionanthology · 6 years

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More Than Love: the 2018 Reylo Fanfiction Anthology Gift Fic Exchange Treats Masterpost Part One

The More Than Love collection on AO3 | Master Post Part One on Tumblr | Master Post Part Two on Tumblr | Treats Part Two on Tumblr

you burn with me by Anonymous for itslaurenmae

Rey's soulmark burns when she meets Kylo Ren for the first time.

Wake by Anonymous for Aniye

Kylo Ren wakes first in the Throne Room after the battle with Rey. He has precious moments to decide what to do with her before he's joined by his second in command, General Hux.

Raindrops by Anonymous for jennity

"Rey sees rain for the first time. It's colder than she thought it would be, but not as cold as space. Leather gloves, warm hands."

Bonded and Balanced by Anonymous for iamladyloki

Rey prepares to meet Ben face to face after months apart after fighting together in Snoke's throne room. She remembers times the Force has bonded them as the prepares to land the Falcon in the Lake Country on Naboo. She focuses on meetings that happened after Crait as she tried to forgive him and they grew closer in many ways.

That Place Where I See You by Anonymous for nymja

A templar didn’t seek out magic. A templar didn’t seek out heresy -- and yet he sought her. A Dragon Age AU featuring templar!Kylo/apostate mage!Rey

The Link that Lingers by Anonymous for Chthonia

As Rey attempts to explain the Force Bond between her and Kylo Ren, Leia witnesses the phenomenon firsthand as it activates during Rey’s explanation. Set after The Last Jedi.

Flowers for Every Season by Anonymous for kuresoto

Rey uses her skills as a florist to help Hux woo a girl at his law firm despite the interference of his harsh boss, Kylo Ren. Modern AU.

so close by Anonymous for Like_A_Dove

Rey is near-fatally injured trying to fight Hux and a few of the Knights of Ren. Kylo escapes with her, but for how long?

undone by Anonymous for caisha

Rey braiding Kylo's hair and vice versa, just domestic stuff.

Towers and Tails by Anonymous for bittersnake

Rey lives a nice, quiet life as a mermaid at the head of the Humanology department at the local community college, until one day she gets caught in a freak storm and sort of accidentally saves a Human's life. Because of this, she loses her job and gets turned into a Human herself, cursed to spend her days in an old abandoned lighthouse where every step she takes is incredibly painful and she could get turned to sea foam at any moment. Well, not a week later after this whole mess during a hurricane, none other than the Human she saved shows up at her lighthouse. Ben Solo. And they're trapped in there. Indefinitely.

To Softly Drown by Anonymous for caisha

Rey and Kylo Ren know they shouldn't, but they keep finding ways to be together.

Handiwork by Anonymous for Vivien

After the war, Ben and Rey write a happier story for themselves as they work to build a life together.

The Family they sought by Anonymous for iamladyloki

Renporer goes to his rooms one night to discover his Empress is expecting.

What They Saw by Anonymous for kylorenaissance

Speculation on what Rey and Kylo may have seen in their respective visions in TLJ.

A Dangerous Affair by Anonymous for AceQueenKing

They know it’s dangerous. They’ve almost been caught dozens of times, either outright or in their tangled lies. - In which Kylo and Rey can't quite let go of the hold they have on each other.

Trust Issues by Anonymous for Slittherwolfe

Ben Solo has left the military to become an actor and met and married Rey, also an actress. They are living the happily ever after until the inevitable question is asked...

Starlight Gets in Your Eyes by Anonymous for kuresoto

1960s AU where Ben works for First Order security and Rey for a flower shop!

Weirwood Dreams by Anonymous for crossingwinter

The Force did not send him a nuisance. It sent him his equal, his other half. Rey. Damned he would be if he didn't treasure her.-Dreams and stories may have kept her sane but he was what kept her alive.

when i knew love's perfect ache by Anonymous for ArcherHybrid

Post-TLJ. Rey and Ben aren't very good at staying away from each other, and Rey's self-control is severely lacking for a Jedi. Or: Rey gets pregnant through the Force Bond, and that is frankly ridiculous and unfair, she would like to say.

Causality by Anonymous for PalenDrome

Kylo Ren has been kidnapped, drugged, and forced into sex slavery by the Hutts. Rey is sent by Leia to rescue him, posing as a client, and ordered to do whatever it takes to get him back. And she isn’t prepared for how devastating this mission will be.

alderaan places by Anonymous for Plutoascending91

Ben is moving to the back window display, preparing to lock up, when he notices something strange in the middle of flora and vases.One, mud-caked motorcycle boot peeks out from underneath a table curtain. The boot belongs to a leg. Even though it’s covered in so many bright tattoos that it looks like leggings or something. His eyes trail up, seeing that the leg goes up to hips that are covered in beat to hell jean cut-off shorts, that an old cream tank top is tucked into the waist of the cut-offs, and that brown, wavy hair hangs over the shoulders of the tank. The pieces eventually register in his mind as a girl.A girl. Is under his table. Sketching.

Take My Hand by Anonymous for yellowdress

“You have kind eyes,” she lets the sentence hang unclosed, her eyebrows raised in a wordless question.“Ben,” he whispers it as if he’s confessing to some unbearable sin.“You have kind eyes, Ben.”

Finally by Anonymous for yellowdress

Rey is busy with school and work, but when a party in her apartment complex becomes too much of an issue, she's forced to deal with the problems she would rather ignore. It would be easy if she had only her neighbor, Finn, to face. Unfortunately Ben is there as well, and after what he's said, she has no desire to see him again.

For There is Nothing Lost by Anonymous for bratanimus��

After things get physical with Ben, Rey quibbles with the terminology of sex and considers what it means for their relationship.

The Only Truth by Anonymous for sokki09

Rey is a struggling singer/songwriter who catches her break when her cover of a Knights of Ren song goes viral. Before she knows it, shes spending studio time with the prickly Kylo Ren, who is busy working on his first solo album, and none of it goes as expected.

Fire and Powder by Anonymous for TheStolenQuill

Two teachers who hate each other because their classrooms share a wall. A Valentine’s dance. A matchmaking principal. A chaperone assignment that ends in an unexpected romance.

Letting Go by Anonymous for murakamism

Instead of running away, Rey tries to convince him some to see her side, to let go of the path he's walked for so long and given everything to.

Same Eyes, Different People by Anonymous for juniorstarcatcher

After Snoke creates the monster Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy is lost, along with his nephew, Ben Solo. Years later, General Organa offers a reward for her son's safe return. Finn and Rey, two orphans living and working on Takodana, plan on pawning off Matt, the Radar Technician as the lost prince, after noticing his striking physical similarities to the only son of the Alderaan princess. "If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people," Maz told her, but Kira knew the truth. Ben Solo - her Ben - was gone. Kylo Ren had murdered him six years ago, back when she went by the name Kira.

Impulse by Anonymous for cuddlesome

Rey trying to "get back" at Kylo by being topless without warning one of the times that they bond. It backfires, of course, because he likes seeing her tits. An impulsive decision to get one up on Kylo Ren turns into something Rey never expected.

truth and touch by Anonymous for thelittlescrimshaw

Rey squeezes her eyes shut, wishing and hoping against everything that both her problems would vanish into thin air the moment her eyelids fluttered open.

A Path Chosen by Anonymous for OccasionallyCreative

Rey. Master of the Knights of Ren, a woman of legend and tales, who took her own Master and bent him to her heel. A terror and a blessing swathed in black wraps; his savior from the endless wastes of Jakku who currently wanted nothing but him to fall in line. But Ben Solo wasn’t one to fall easily. ------- Ben Solo was left behind on Jakku. It wasn't long before he was found by Rey, Master of the Knights of Ren, who promised him a better life and an inheritance he couldn't ignore.

By Night by Anonymous for czechia

He tried to memorize the look in her eyes as he touched her, trailing his fingers up and over the knobs of her spine, reacquainting himself with the parts of her he had forgotten. The scars she had acquired during their time together were still there, puckered ridges he used to know as intimately as the stories behind them, staining his memory like ink.

in that dry white ocean alone by Anonymous for KKetura

Sometimes the things we hate in others are the things we fear inside ourselves. How do you keep running from the other face in the mirror?

Holonet Mail by Anonymous for TheJGatsby

Two work rivals, who despise each other, unknowingly fall in love as they exchange letters through the holonet.

Call Me Sweetheart by Anonymous for diasterisms

It's a good life, what they've created together, but Rey simply hates Ben's silly names for her.

Sweet Nothings by Anonymous for diasterisms

“Hey asshole, I was sitting here.” The stranger looked up at her from behind thick-rimmed Ray Bans and ran a hand through thick black hair. There was a bit of foam on his lip. “What do you want me to about that, sweetheart?” ------aka, the five times Ben refers to Rey with pet names and the one time she replies.

Daffodil by Anonymous for Plutoascending91

Ben Solo gets an unexpected visitor on a Wednesday afternoon with a very specific request.

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away by Anonymous for solikerez

Rey and Ben, two Hogwarts students, met in their second year and quickly connected, but when Ben learned that Rey was Muggle born he knew they could never be together. His strict, pure-blood grandparents would never allow it and had already abnegated his parents for joining Dumbledore. They took him in after the death of his parents in the war and swore never to let their family be torn apart again. Unfortunately, forgetting Rey became just as impossible as the relationship must be.

Clean Hands, Light Heart by Anonymous for kimaracretak

Rey knows how cruel you need to be, to get things clean. She doesn't want to be cruel, though.

we'll never sleep by Anonymous for ChecktheHolonet

Kylo needing Rey but loathing himself for it, looking for a way to release his frustration and rage, relying on her to recognize his needs and fulfill them while taking her own pleasure in being able to exert a level of power and control.

Kissed By the Sun by Anonymous for Trish47

Rey had very limited personal experience with men, but she knew enough about them to be surprised when the first article of her clothing Ben tried to remove was her arm wrap.

without him I feel his arms around me by Anonymous for the-reylo-void

A sad little conversation between Rey and Kylo post-TLJ. Some angst and pining, a convo, and Rey POV. Talk about why they both did what they did in the throne room. They both wish they didn't have to fight each other anymore.

There is no 'You and I' by Anonymous for mrstater

Rey wishes Kylo Ren would leave her alone. Or so she tells herself.

To: Professor Rey Niima's Husband by Anonymous for solikerez

There are a few rumors going around in Hogwarts.

Convergence by Anonymous for politicalmamaduck

Other, also known as ‘soulmate’ for people who wanted to believe. Not everyone had an Other, and the only way to find your Other was by saying their name. When that happened, memories of their life, where they grew up and the steps that led them to you, would be condensed into a single flashback that passed in a blink of an eye. The fact that someone had said Rey’s name and didn’t bother approaching her hurt, especially since she had a good idea why. Her parents tossed her aside when she was barely five, so she shouldn’t be surprised that her soulmate had done the same.

This Monstrous Force by Anonymous for meritmut

She never knew what she looked like in the Force. She knew what she felt like, and she knew what others appeared to her. Some nights she would dream of waking in a shifting world of limitless power and her teeth were replaced with fangs, her eyes with refined sight and the hunger of a beast that hasn't fed in far too long.

In the Rain by Anonymous for jennachangedherusername

Walking through the market near the new Resistance base, Rey thinks she sees a familiar face, or is it just a mirage?

banes by Anonymous for firelord65

The galaxy belonged to Rey. He belonged to Rey. And still it was not enough. Whatever emptiness burned inside of him magnified itself in her, had long since grown out of control, worse than any black hole. He could be sated by her touch, her lips on his, the comfort of words he no longer believed that she believed: you’re not alone, I understand, I’m here with you, we can do this.There was nothing that could sate her.

Cloudbusting by Anonymous for mrstater

“Have you heard of cloudbusting?” he asked. They could never talk about what they were talking about, but it all meant the same thing, every time.

A glimpse of future by Anonymous for cuddlekylo

Kylo Ren comes back home where his wife Rey awaits him with a surprise (which actually really shouldn't be one).

Acquired Tastes by Anonymous for NextToSomething

When Kylo Ren and Rey share a meal under most unusual circumstances, they find they have a taste for things they never expected.

The Scroll by Anonymous for Acacieae

It was ironic that between the two of them, Ben and Rey’s boxes of possessions equaled less than those of the late Leia Organa and there were only four of those metal containers.

That Which Haunts by Anonymous for dietplainlite

Kylo and Rey are assigned to do a trip from Nar Shadda to Canto Bight, but the Falcon decides to act up in it's most reliable way.

it goes round and round (everything falling) by Anonymous for politicalmamaduck and rosewitches

again and again, she slips from his grasp like moonlight (reincarnation au where ben seeks her through their past lives and maybe, just maybe this time this time will be the last)

No Way Back by Anonymous for misszeldasayre

They are intertwined. Inseparable. It's almost unbearable. Kylo cannot move forward, no matter how often Rey appears to tell him he must.

Mirrorbright by Anonymous for juniorstarcatcher

An Anastasia AU set in the SW universe. An evil Force-user curses the Solo family, giving rise to a coup that separates the Organa-Solo family - the young prince Ben disappearing in the mayhem. Years later, his mother has offered a reward for his return. Con artist and smuggler Rey and Chewbacca plan to pass off a phony as the prince and collect the reward, never guessing that the orphan they've tricked into helping is truly the crown prince, Ben Organa Solo.

The Lure of the Light by Anonymous for Alethnya

Snoke failed to turn Ben to the dark side, but found a willing apprentice in Rey. Years later, Rey has set herself against the resurgent Jedi Order - and one ridiculously infuriating Jedi in particular.

Crawl Under Your Skin by Anonymous for witchoil

"Underneath his forehead, beneath her skin, a heat wave’s been building in Rey's lower belly, smoothing and constricting, pushing and pulling on elastic tendrils. Kylo can pinpoint the exact moment when it shatters."

dunes of sand by Anonymous for punkeraa

Senator Ben Organa is sent to Jakku to evaluate the state of the old Imperial base and secure it from the rising First Order.He finds so much more than he could have imagined.

Called by Distraction by Anonymous for Ariel_Riddle

Kylo Ren follows his high-ranking officers to a brothel where he sees a vision in white: Rey. Possessed by desire, Kylo sweeps her away toward his ship, though they don’t quite reach it.

Truth Be Told by Anonymous for pythia

“Do you even know who you’re working for?” He taunted. She wiped a smear of blood from her lip. “Don’t worry, we’re the good guys.” Spying a workbench nearby, Rey picked up a screwdriver to use as a weapon. This man was relentless. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”Alias AU: Rey is an agent with SD-6, a secret branch of the CIA. But a chance encounter with the mysterious agent Kylo Ren could send everything she knows crashing to the ground. Could she be working for the very enemy she thought she was fighting?

Back on Track by Anonymous for dustoftheancients

Ben and Rey are bickering neighbors who are forced to work together in the end.

carrie. by Anonymous for punkeraa

The first week of being a parent was always the hardest.

safe by Anonymous for LueurdeLaube

Leave me be. You don’t deserve any of this. Please...

Chase Away His Demons by Anonymous for Limra

Rey is pregnant and goes to tell Ben, but has to deal with his jealousy first.

Whatever She Wants by Anonymous for starlightreader

"Tie me down and take whatever you want." When Rey tells him she wants to re-enact the day they met, Ben isn't sure whether having her at his mercy will feed his fantasies - or his nightmares.

#reylo #reylo fanfiction anthology #more than love #reylo exchange #rffa writers #master post #mod post #moodboard

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